Delhi Capitals (DC) head coach Ricky Ponting lauded Rishabh Pant after the cricketer began his prep for return to competitive cricket in the upcoming IPL 2024. Pant has been training at the DC Camp in Vizag after receiving medical clearance from BCCI and NCA.
Pant missed a lot of cricket including the entire 2023 after his near-fatal car accident in December 2022. HE underwent surgeries and a long recovery, and rehab process for 14 months to get fit in time for the IPL 2024.
DC had shared clips of Rishabh Pant batting in nets in Vizag and the cricketer was seen hitting the ball sweetly and it was like he had not missed any time away from the game. It remains to be seen whether he keeps wickets or not when the IPL starts on March 22.
In good news for DC fans, head coach Ricky Ponting has stated that Pant’s hitting of the ball appears to be as solid as ever and his return certainly is having an effect on the dressing room by lifting the spirits of his teammates.
“We missed him (Pant) incredibly last year. The whole tournament missed him. Rishabh brings so much energy to the team. He’s got that smile on his face, he’s hitting the ball as good as ever and he tends to lift all of his teammates around him,” Ponting was quoted as saying in a press release.
DC will play Punjab Kings on March 23 in their opening match at Mohali’s new stadium in Mullanpur.
IPL 2024: WATCH- Rishabh Pant smashes sixes in his first net session since joining DC training camp
“It’s just the start. We don’t expect to be practicing at our absolute best right now. We’re not even so much looking forward to the first game yet. We’re getting some volume work done. What I saw today was very exciting, very promising. It’s great to be back with the Delhi Capitals family,” said the former Australia skipper.
DC had a very poor season in IPL 2023, and Ponting wants to raise his level of preparedness along with the players. Ponting said that it is not about qualifying for the playoffs, but the main goal is to win the IPL.
“It’s not a different approach, it’s the same, but I’m going to be more intense with the way that I go about it this year. Every time I come here, I talk about wanting to win the IPL and nothing changes there. I’m just going to talk about that a lot more this year.
I want the guys to be fully engaged and that’s the reason we’re all here. It’s my job to bring success to this team. We’re not talking about just winning enough games to qualify. We’re talking about winning the IPL. Everything we do, every training session we have, every meeting we have, every recovery session we have, every chat that I have with the players is going to be about making them better to give ourselves the best chance of winning,” he said.
(PTI inputs)
