Rishabh Pant’s incredible comeback to cricket has been praised by former Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting. Pant is expected to make a comeback to the Indian Test team for the two-match series against Bangladesh.
Ricky Ponting, the former captain of Australia and head coach of the Delhi Capitals, praised Rishabh Pant’s return. Ponting acknowledged that he had not anticipated Pant returning for the Delhi Capitals in the 2024 Indian Premier League. He commended Pant on his incredible comeback, making history as DC’s highest IPL run scorer, participating in India’s victorious T20 World Cup campaign, and now making a comeback to the Test team. Pant missed over 15 months of cricket action due to a car accident that occurred in December 2022.
It’s an amazing return. Ricky Ponting told Sky Sports that he didn’t think he would play in the IPL last year (2024) if you could only see his leg now and hear the stories he tells about the struggles he faced after his car accident—not only the mental scarring that comes with it, but also the physical side and the rehab he went through.
Ponting on Pant’s comeback
The squad was given the assurance by Pant, the former head coach of DC, that he would return for the 2024 IPL. With a strike-rate of 155.40 and an average of 40.55, he scored 446 runs in 13 games. Pant played wicketkeeping for India in the T20 World Cup, returning to the national team and scoring 171 runs in 8 matches.
But he assured everyone that he would be OK for the IPL a full year earlier. We had assumed that he would be able to bat and that we might have to use him as an impact player, but he added that he kept every game, was one of our top run scorers, bats No. 3 in the T20 World Cup, is a member of a team that won the World Cup, and is currently included in the Test squad.
Return of Pant to red-ball cricket
Pant declared his comeback to red-ball cricket following a scorching fifty in the opening Duleep Trophy 2024 round. In November, India will play Australia in a major series. He was selected in the team for the two-match Test series against Bangladesh.
He’s made a tremendous comeback, and as everyone has witnessed and heard from him on the stump mic, he’s a fun guy to be around the group. Ponting declared, “He’s a winner, that’s what he is; he loves cricket.”
