Ponting also revealed that he has been in contact with Pant during his recovery.
On Friday (January 20), former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting opened up on his affection for Pant, who is still undergoing treatment at a hospital in Mumbai.
Ponting, who shares a healthy bond with Rishabh after spending time with him in the IPL for Delhi Capitals, also revealed that he has been in contact with the wicketkeeper-batter during his recovery.
“I absolutely love the bloke, I told him that on the phone the last couple of days,” Ponting told The ICC Review.
“It was a horrifying time, a really scary time for everybody, let alone him. Anyone that knows him loves him – he’s a really infectious young guy that has the world at his feet still.
“So we will keep our fingers crossed and hope that he can get back to playing sooner rather than later.”
On December 30, Rishabh Pant’s car collided with a divider on the Delhi-Dehradun expressway and caught fire, forcing him to break the car window and get out of the vehicle.
Initially, he was treated at the Max Hospital in Dehradun for multiple injuries. However, the southpaw was shifted to Mumbai for the treatment of his right knee, which took a major impact in the near-fatal accident.
While there is no clarity on Pant’s return to cricket, it seems unlikely that he will feature in this year’s IPL. Being a head coach, Ponting already looking at alternative ways to make up for the loss of DC’s captain.
“You can’t replace those guys, simple as that,” Ponting said. “They don’t grow on trees, players like that. We’ve got to look at – and we already are – a replacement to come into the squad, a wicketkeeper-batsman.”
However, Ponting’s love for Pant is such that he still wants the latter around him.
“I want him sitting beside me in the dugout every day of the week. If he’s actually not physically fit enough to play, we’d still love to have him around,” Ponting explained. “He’s the sort of cultural leader around the group, being the captain, and that attitude and infectious smile and laugh he has is what we all love so much about him.
“If he’s actually able to travel and be around the team, then I want him sitting beside me in the dugout every day of the week.
“I’ll certainly be making sure, come the middle of March when we get together in Delhi and start our camps and stuff, if he’s able to be there, then I want him around the whole time.”
Rishabh Pant is a key player for India, especially in the longest format, in the last two years. His absence from the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at home in February-March could India’s chances of qualifying for the World Test Championship final.
Ponting also acknowledged that Pant’s Test batting will be a huge loss for India.
“I think he’s ranked in the top six-seven Test batsmen in the world, isn’t he? When he first started, we probably all thought he was going to be a better T20 and one-day batsman than a Test batsman, but it’s actually worked the other way. His Test cricket has been remarkable,” Ponting remarked.
“Even the series coming up against Australia, the four-Test series there, we know how he played against Australia in Australia last time. He’d have been looking forward to that series, and the rest of the world would have been looking forward to watching him play,” he concluded.
(With ICC Inputs)