'He Was Box Office & Will Be...' - Ex-England Captain Predicts About Rishabh Pant 2.0
Rishabh is expected to make his return in 2024. [PC: X]
Former England captain and renowned commentator Nasser Hussain hailed Indian cricketer Rishabh Pant and is anticipating the star wicketkeeper batter to make a stunning comeback on the field in 2024.
Exactly a year ago, on December 30th, 2022, a distressing incident shook the heart of the cricketing world as Rishabh Pant suffered a serious car accident on his way home in Roorkee.
The dynamic left-hander has been out of action since then and is still under rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy (NCA), Bengaluru. The 26-year-old is making smooth progress in his recovery and is expected to finally make his return in the forthcoming IPL 2024 for Delhi Capitals and eventually play for India soon as well.
Hussain, who is a huge admirer of Pant's explosive batting and entertaining character behind the wicket, opened up about how much he misses seeing Pant play cricket and expressed his wish to see him gracing the cricket field once again.
It has been a slow and steady recovery process, and the Delhi Capitals’ skipper has been regularly posting photos and videos of his progress on social media. Hussain represented every cricket enthusiast when he revealed how he followed Pant’s road to recovery, all the way from the days of his baby steps to walking again to see him batting in the nets.
“You follow on social media, on my phone and the initial first walking steps to then scenes in the gym and then scenes of him playing a bit of cricket, scenes of him with Ricky (Ponting)," said Hussain as quoted by ICC.
Pant was also spotted joining the likes of Sourav Ganguly and Ricky Ponting in the recently concluded Delhi Capitals camp in Kolkata, before the IPL auction. Hussain went on to reveal how former Australia captain and current Delhi Capitals’ head coach keeps a check on Pant’s recovery status on a regular basis.
"I traveled with Ricky in the summer in the Ashes, and Ricky was texting him ‘how's the progress coming along," Hussain added.
Even though Pant’s unavailability was a huge setback for team India, considering it was a World Cup year, they did quite well to manage without him, with KL Rahul playing the role behind the stumps throughout the World Cup and now in the ongoing Test series against South Africa.
However, the left-hander adds a different stability to the side, particularly in the Test format, and his absence was definitely felt in the shambolic innings defeat against the Proteas in the recently concluded first Test at Centurion.
"India have done well without him (Pant) as KL has come in and been brilliant in all formats. They're lucky to have both of them, but Rishabh Pant, before his injury, was box office, and hopefully after his injury, will be box office as well," Hussain concluded.
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