ON THE COMEBACK TRAIL
Rishabh Pant was hit on his foot by a Chris Woakes delivery on the first day of the Manchester Test © Getty
Rishabh Pant is back in India and will soon head to the Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru for rehabilitation. The wicketkeeper-batter, who fractured his right foot during the fourth Test against England in Manchester on July 23, has spent the past few days consulting specialists.
While the details of the assessment are still awaited, it appears that Pant (27), one of the finest batters across formats, is targeting India’s next home series against the West Indies in October for his comeback. If that does not happen, the white-ball series against Australia in October-November seems a realistic possibility.
It is learnt that Pant spent the past few days in Mumbai consulting medical experts. Having flown in directly from England, he underwent an assessment to check the progress of his injured foot, which is still believed to be strapped. Doctors in the city are understood to have given him a timeline for returning to the CoE for rehabilitation.
Pant was hit on his foot by a Chris Woakes delivery on the first day of the Manchester (fourth) Test of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, forcing him to retire in pain. At the time of the injury, he was batting on 37. He came back the next day, to the astonishment of everyone, with full strapping on his foot and went on to add some valuable runs for the side. In the process, Pant, the vice-captain of the side, also completed his half-century (54).
However, as a consequence of the injury, he had to miss the fifth and final Test at the Oval, which India won to level the series. Pant stayed back in England after the conclusion of the series and is believed to have returned to India only a few days ago. Since the time of his injury, Pant has been posting updates on his recovery on his social media handles.
One of his recent posts read: “Just wanna tell you one thing which I understand is it doesn’t matter how much pain you endured in the past, if you get hurt again it pains the same for sure, just the threshold goes up and you know the process to keep pushing yourself. So being positive is massive, motivating yourself works a lot. Keep trusting yourself and keep working in the direction you wanna take your life because what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger eventually (sic).”
Given the series of serious setbacks he has faced in his career and life, it is perhaps natural that Pant expressed such a deeply existential thought. In 2022, he miraculously survived a near-fatal accident, which sidelined him for over a year with a serious knee injury. Even before his latest setback in Manchester, he had suffered a finger injury during the third Test at Lord’s, which prevented him from keeping wicket.
© Cricbuzz
