In heartening news for fans, Delhi Capitals coach Ricky Ponting has said that Rishabh Pant is "very confident" of playing the entire season of IPL 2024. However, Ponting is unsure of whether the destructive batter-wicketkeeper will be able to captain for the whole tournament or keep wickets, given he is still recovering from the injuries he sustained in a major car accident in December 2022. (More Cricket News)
Pant has not played any professional cricket ever since that accident, after which he felt his "time in this world was over."
Ponting, who was speaking in Melbourne on Wednesday, February 7 after signing a two-year deal as Washington Freedom's new Major League Cricket coach, said Pant was optimistic about his availability for the upcoming Indian Premier League season but added that anything they get from him "will be a bonus".
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The former Australia captain said: "Rishabh is very confident that he's going to be right to play. In what capacity we're not quite sure yet.
"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.
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"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."
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Ponting added: "He's such a dynamic player. He's obviously our captain. We missed him incredibly last year. If you understand the journey he's been on the last 12-13 months, it was a horrific incident. One that I know he feels very lucky to have even survived, let alone have the chance to play cricket again.
"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."
The legendary Aussie cricketer confirmed that his compatriot David Warner will lead Delhi Capitals again if Pant was unavailable to for the captaincy role. The DC coach said he was happy with the squad the franchise had assembled after the auction in December 2023, but acknowledged that the team had underperformed in the last two seasons.
"With Harry Brook coming into the set-up as well, so Warner, (Mitchell) Marsh, Harry Brook, we've got some really good overseas batters," Ponting said. "Marsh and Warner will bat up the top somewhere and Harry Brook has been finishing off with England, so he'll probably play a finishing role for us there.
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"(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."
