India keeper-batter Rishabh Pant has made huge strides in his recovery process after being involved in a serious car accident in December last year while on his way from Delhi to home in Roorkee.
Pant had suffered major injuries and burns and after receiving some preliminary treatment in Dehradun, he was airlifted to Mumbai by the BCCI for further treatment. This included a knee surgery to repair some ligament damage and other things.
Since then, Pant rehabbed and recovered, first at home and then continued his journey to fitness at the NCA. BCCI reports had indicated that Pant had started batting and keeping in nets at the facility, giving his fans some happy news.
On August 15, Pant was seen batting in a match for the first time, when he turned out in Bengaluru in a local tourney and batted exquisitely and even stepped out and hit a huge six. The video of his batting went viral on social media.
However, former India batter Aakash Chopra has said that India wicket-keeping batter Rishabh Pant’s comeback is quite far away as of now. He said that Pant has started batting against the bowling machine but is still quite far away in terms of his India comeback.
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“Rishabh Pant had posted a video where Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul were seen batting after a long time. Now his videos have come from which it seems he is coming back. He has started batting against the bowling machine. He has started playing against 140 kph but Pant's comeback is quite far away as of now,” said Chopra said on his YouTube channel.
He said that conservative guess to Rishabh Pant’s return to the game should be IPL 2024.
“The conservative guess was that he might get fit by the next IPL or the next (T20) World Cup. Let's see, fingers crossed. Good scenes are coming and we get happy in that itself, that the boy has started moving and playing at least,” Chopra added.