Rishabh Pant is assured of enjoying your complete IPL however the flamboyant cricketer may solely be out there as a batter and never behind the stumps, in response to Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting. Pant was concerned in a life-threatening automobile accident in December, 2022 that compelled him to endure ligament reconstruction surgical procedures. “Rishabh is very confident that he’s going to be right to play. In what capacity we’re not quite sure yet,” was quoted as saying by ‘ESPNCricinfo’.

“You would have seen all the social-media stuff, he’s up and about and running well. But in saying that we’re only six weeks away from the first game as well. So we’re not sure if we’ll get wicketkeeping out of him this year.” “We’ll just keep our fingers crossed and hope that he can be out there and play. Even if it’s not all the games, if we can manage him through 10 of the 14 games or whatever that might be then whatever games you can get out of him will be a bonus.”

In case Pant will not be in a position to fulfil wicketkeeping duties, the 26-year-old may play as a pure batter or might be used as an Impact Player within the upcoming IPL, anticipated to start in March.

“But I’ll guarantee if I asked him now he’ll say, ‘I’m playing every game, I’m keeping every game and I’m batting at No.4.’ That’s just what he’s like, but we’ll keep our fingers crossed.

“He’s such a dynamic participant. He’s clearly our captain. We missed him extremely final yr. If you perceive the journey he is been on the final 12-13 months, it was a horrific incident. One that I do know he feels very fortunate to have even survived, not to mention have the possibility to play cricket once more.”

Warner to lead if Pant unavailable

David Warner led the Capitals last season and Ponting confirmed that star Australian batter would be captain if Pant is unavailable to do the job.

The franchise picked up young England batter Harry Brook for Rs 4 crore at the auction last year. While Ponting is happy with his squad, the two-time World Cup winning captain acknowledged the team has underperformed in the past two seasons.

“With Harry Brook coming into the set-up as properly, so Warner, [Mitch] Marsh, Harry Brook, we have got some actually good abroad batters,” Ponting said.

“Marsh and Warner will bat up the highest someplace and Harry Brook has been ending off with England, so he’ll in all probability play a ending function for us there.

“[If] we can get [Anrich] Nortje and Jhye Richardson fit, and with the two spin options we’ve got with Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav we’ve got a really good squad that to be fair has probably underperformed the last couple of years, so we’ve got some work to do.” The Capitals had completed fifth in 2022 and ninth final season.

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