IPL 2024: Time to celebrate Rishabh Pant’s return to the middle order

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Will do, right? After a long suspense of the last two months, it is now official that Rishabh Pant has been declared fit as the wicketkeeper-batsman for the upcoming IPL 2024 – although it remains to be seen how Delhi Capitals plan to use him. Making plans.

A BCCI press release on Tuesday, March 12, confirmed secretary Jay Shah’s indications from the day before: ‘Following a fatal road accident near Roorkee, Uttarakhand on 30 December 2022, a 14-month comprehensive rehabilitation and recovery process After undergoing the IPL, Rishabh Pant has now been declared fit as a wicket-keeper batsman for the upcoming Tata IPL 2024.

This must have been music to the ears of Indian cricket fans as several reports on Pant’s return date in recent times were quite contradictory – one even claimed that the entertainer’s return would be delayed until after the Indian Premier League. and it can effectively rule over them. Out for the T20 World Cup in June.

However, the green signal for the prestigious event will depend on their ability to adjust to the tough conditions of competitive cricket and more importantly, whether they continue to perform on a regular basis in the two-month long IPL.

“If he can play the T20 World Cup for us, it will be a big thing for us. He is a great asset for us,” Shah said on Monday, March 11. “The doors are open for him. Now he has started doing (wicketkeeping), so we are waiting. Our team is ascertaining his fitness.”

It doesn’t hurt to guess that for now, it will be a case of wait and see with Pant as the BCCI medical team headed by Nitin Patel will monitor his progress through the league.

The medical clearance – which came with the announcement that two fast bowlers, Prasidh Krishna (Rajasthan Royals) and Mohammed Shami (Gujarat Titans) had been ruled out of the IPL – could not wait. Teams have to finalize their squads and only 10 days are left for the tournament.

On March 23, when the Capitals begin their campaign with a match against Punjab Kings in Mohali, it will truly be time to celebrate if Pant makes it into the game – no matter what his role.

This will be the biggest comeback on the cricket pitch since the valiant Yuvraj Singh defeated cancer to play in the 2012 World T20 in Sri Lanka.

“Keep smiling,” was Pant’s first reaction on his Instagram account, which showed his infectious smile.

Deep down, the 26-year-old knows how much it means to him to be back on the field. In a video released in late January, he said: “The kind of accident that happened to me, [I am] lucky to be alive.”

To say that it was a painful 14 months for him would be an understatement – the first pictures of an injured Pant lying in the hospital still send a shiver. It was a painstaking, collaborative effort on the part of the BCCI and the NCA as the cricketer began his recovery in several stages – the most important part being ligament reconstruction surgery.

This raises doubts over Pant’s keeping abilities in the future, especially in the longer format, as it involves sitting after every ball.

This is a concern that has been emphatically expressed by none other than Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting in a recent interview. icc review: ‘It’s a big decision we have to take because if he is fit, you would think he would come straight back into the captaincy role. If he is not fully fit and we have to use him in a slightly different role, then we will have to take some decisions there.

The recent hits at the NCA have certainly given Ponting a lot of hope, but he is not committed to that prognosis: ‘He has actually played a few practice matches in the last few weeks, which has been really encouraging for us. I know he has worked incredibly hard on his body and his fitness to get back to the level he is at now. He has been put in one of those games, he has been fielded in these games and batting has not been an issue for him so far.

And this is all the former Australian great player would say.

Still, now that Pant has crossed the first hurdle and is part of the IPL, a clearer picture will emerge in the next 10 days…