It has been well over a year since the freak accident that involved India’s star wicketkeeper that had the world shaken. Luck was on his side as haunting yet powerful footage of Pant emerging out of the fires of his car was released to the public. The accident unfortunately happened when he was at the peak of his career. Finding success wherever he went and in whatever format, the fearless cricketer was setting a benchmark for the new generation and its cricketing attitude.
To say the Delhi Capitals missed him would be an understatement, ending their 2023 campaign in a dismal 9th position. Ever since his accident, he has been on the path of slow but steady recovery which is almost at its end. And with the IPL around the corner, Ricky Ponting has plans to bring the hard-hitting maestro in as the captain of the team, but he can’t keep the wickets for the first 7 games. Is this the right call?
When Pant was out with the injury, he was known among the Indian fans to get wins from any position. He was unorthodox but reliable and after considerably improving his wicket-keeping, no one was close to being the first-choice keeper batsman in the team, for any format of the game. When he got injured, India tried a variety of keepers, some even finding success at some point. But no one had the impact that Pant did, and fans were waiting eagerly for his recovery. Even DC had tried Phil Salt, but it was a foreign slot which reduced Delhi’s options considerably. Everyone was missing Rishabh Pant and longed for the day he would be back. But aren’t these expectations a bit too heavy?
A recovering player who is still essentially getting his footing back may not be the player he was before an injury. We’ve seen an injury be the reason for the end of so many careers. Even if he does look like he’d continue from where he left off, one injury always makes a player prone to being injured again under immense physical activity, and being a keeper-batsman, is it going to be difficult to keep an injury at bay. Now, if he somehow is careful about his injury and ensures he doesn’t fall into an injury spiral, it will be incredibly difficult to get the form back that he was in 2 years ago. He was at a career peak and people find it difficult to replicate a good patch of their career normally, so it is going to be doubly difficult for Pant who is coming back from an injury.
On top of all this, Ricky Ponting appointing him as captain puts even more pressure on him. To lift up a ‘down-and-out’ Delhi Capitals now falls on his shoulders amid all the other expectations that he must meet. It is going to be an uphill task for Pant, and while the others are expected of a player who wants to make it to a side’s playing XI, a captaincy badge seems unnecessary and could’ve been given later, if at all.
All this is not to say Pant can’t meet all the expectations. Sure, they look like a mountain of responsibility, but so did winning against Australia at the elusive Gabba stadium, and Pant pulled it off in style, in a way no one else could have. Perhaps, he could do the same for his career and break his way into being the Pant we all knew and loved. A very intriguing season of IPL followed by Pant’s possible comeback into the Indian team awaits us, and the faith put in him by both fans and his coach is inspiring and hopefully, Pant can live up to them.
