Ponting on Rishabh Pant's Absence: The Heartbeat Missing from Delhi Capitals
Ricky Ponting, the coach of the Delhi Capitals, spoke about the absence of Rishabh Pant in IPL 2023, stating that the team misses him greatly and considers him the heartbeat of the squad.
On Saturday, April 29, the Delhi Capitals (DC) are set to face the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the 40th match of the Indian Premier League at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi. DC head coach Ricky Ponting expressed the team's sentiments, mentioning the absence of regular skipper Rishabh Pant, who is greatly missed by both the players and the team management in the dressing room.
Rishabh Pant’s absence and DC’s performance
In the ongoing season, Rishabh Pant's absence has been felt by the Delhi Capitals due to injuries sustained in a car accident. As a result, the franchise appointed veteran opening batsman David Warner as the interim captain, leveraging his IPL leadership experience with SRH. Unfortunately, the Delhi-based team started the tournament on a disappointing note, suffering five consecutive losses.
Under the leadership of David Warner, the team has made a strong comeback, securing consecutive victories against the Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers in their last two matches. Despite this resurgence, the Delhi Capitals find themselves at the bottom of the 10-team points table with 4 points and a Net Run Rate of 0.961.
What did Ricky Ponting say about Rishabh Pant?
In a pre-match press conference, DC coach Ricky Ponting expressed his disappointment regarding Rishabh Pant's injury. He acknowledged the challenge of finding a player of Pant's calibre to fill his role within the team.
He said,
“What happened to Rishabh was not in our control. We miss him every day, he is the heartbeat of this team. Trying to replace Rishabh is not an easy thing to do.”
DC fails to find Rishabh’s Replacement
At the beginning of the tournament, the Capitals entrusted Sarfaraz Khan with the role of the wicketkeeper-batsman in the playing XI. However, Abishek Porel, who stepped in as a replacement for Rishabh Pant, struggled to make a significant impact with the bat in the middle order. Porel managed to score only 33 runs in four matches, resulting in a disappointing average of 8.2 and a strike rate of 106.45.
The Delhi Capitals struggled to find a suitable wicketkeeper-batsman for their playing XI. In the last two matches, England's opening batsman Philip Salt was given the opportunity. Salt made his IPL debut against the Kolkata Knight Riders, scoring five runs. However, he faced a setback in the following match against the Sunrisers Hyderabad when he was dismissed for a first-ball duck after opening the innings.
Rishabh Pant’s accident
In a devastating turn of events, Rishabh Pant, the captain and wicket-keeper batsman of the Delhi Capitals, suffered a major setback when he was involved in a car accident in December of the previous year. He was travelling to his hometown to celebrate the new year with his mother when he met with a car accident. This unexpected and unfortunate incident dealt a significant blow to both Pants individually and the DC and Indian Cricket teams as well.
The accident resulted in severe injuries, forcing Pant to endure a lengthy period of recovery and rehabilitation. Unfortunately, the nature of his injuries was such that he had to be ruled out of action for a staggering duration of approximately 17-18 months. This is even more crucial as he has missed on BGT 2023 and IPL 2023. Now, the international stage will get even bigger with the World Test Championship finale next month, and the Asia Cup & World Cup scheduled to happen later this year.
In other news, Shane Watson has slammed Rohit Sharma’s performance in IPL