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Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting said he would love to have Rishabh Pant around his side for the upcoming 2023 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), even if he is not physically fit enough to play in the tournament.
In the early morning on December 30, Pant was involved in a serious car accident when his car collided with a road divider and caught fire on the Delhi-Dehradun highway. The horrific car accident happened between Manglaur and Narsan in the Haridwar district of Uttarakhand.
Fortunately, Pant was lucky enough to survive and was initially taken to Saksham Hospital Multispecialty and Trauma Centre, before being admitted to Max Hospital, Dehradun for further treatment of multiple injuries. On January 4, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced that Pant would be shifted to Mumbai via an air ambulance for surgery and further treatment.
25-year-old Pant, who is also the skipper of Delhi Capitals in the IPL, is making good progress with his recovery under the direct supervision of Dr Dinshaw Pardiwala, the head of the Centre for Sports Medicine, and Director of Arthroscopy & Shoulder Service, at the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital in Andheri West, Mumbai.
🗨 “He’s a really infectious young guy that has the world at his feet still”
On the ICC Review, Ricky Ponting showered love and praise for Rishabh Pant ♥
More 👉 https://t.co/Z8spn1yWlR pic.twitter.com/OsZN9jrEqj
— ICC (@ICC) January 20, 2023
Australian legend Ponting, speaking on The ICC Review, revealed that he has been in contact with Pant during the 25-year-old’s recovery.
“I absolutely love the bloke, I told him that on the phone the last couple of days,” Ponting told The ICC Review.
“It was a horrifying time, a really scary time for everybody, let alone him. Anyone that knows him loves him – he’s a really infectious young guy that has the world at his feet still.
“So we will keep our fingers crossed and hope that he can get back to playing sooner rather than later.”
Pant’s participation in this season’s IPL is not yet completely ruled out as the timeframe of his return to cricket still remains unclear.
However, it is considered extremely unlikely that Delhi Capitals captain Pant will play for his in 2023, with the head coach already looking at alternative ways to make up for the loss of his star player.
“You can’t replace those guys, simple as that,” Ponting said.
“They don’t grow on trees, players like that. We’ve got to look at – and we already are – a replacement to come into the squad, a wicketkeeper-batsman.”
However, Ponting’s love and respect for his captain means that a big role at the Capitals will still be on offer if Pant is well enough, with the Australian saying “I want him sitting beside me in the dugout every day of the week”.
“If he’s actually not physically fit enough to play, we’d still love to have him around,” Ponting explained. “He’s the sort of cultural leader around the group, being the captain, and that attitude and infectious smile and laugh he has is what we all love so much about him.
“If he’s actually able to travel and be around the team, then I want him sitting beside me in the dugout every day of the week.
“I’ll certainly be making sure, come the middle of March when we get together in Delhi and start our camps and stuff, if he’s able to be there, then I want him around the whole time.”
India are set to play the much-anticipated four-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test series against the top-ranked Australian side, with the two teams also currently on track to meet again in the ICC World Test Championship final in June.
Ponting believes that the brilliance of Pant’s Test batting will be a huge loss, not just for India but also for fans of the game who would have been so anticipating a repeat of his heroics in Australia two years ago.
“I think he’s ranked in the top six-seven Test batsmen in the world, isn’t he?” Ponting asked.
“When he first started, we probably all thought he was going to be a better T20 and one-day batsman than a Test batsman, but it’s actually worked the other way. His Test cricket has been remarkable.
“Even the series coming up against Australia, the four-Test series there, we know how he played against Australia in Australia last time. He’d have been looking forward to that series, and the rest of the world would have been looking forward to watching him play,” he added.
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