Indian National Cricket Team wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant has started preparations for Duleep Trophy 2024 which will start on September 5. The tournament will also mark his return to red ball cricket after more than a year.
Rishabh Pant played his last red ball game in December 2022 against Bangladesh. But after that he met with a terrible accident and was out of cricket for over a year after that. He has missed important games for India including ICC World Cup Test Championship 2023 and World Cup 2023.
Rishabh Pant, however, came back for him Indian National Cricket Team In T20 World Cup 2024. He played a decent role for the team in the tournament and later made his ODI return to the team in the last game of the three-match ODI series against the Sri Lanka National Cricket Team.
Although Pant is back in two formats, he is looking forward to a grand return to his best format, Test cricket. The wicketkeeper-batsman has been named in the India B squad for the upcoming Duleep Trophy 2024, which will mark his comeback in the Indian team.
Ahead of the Duleep Trophy, Rishabh Pant was seen entering the tournament. The keeper-batsman posted a video on Instagram on Monday of him practicing in the nets. The left-hander made some sharp shots as he looked in good contact before the inside circle. He released the video with the following comment:
“I try not to have expectations because they can tear you apart. I try to work as hard as I can and give every ounce of my hundred percent and continue to learn from it.”
Rishabh Pant is training for Duleep Trophy 2024
We present the video:
Rishabh Pant will be extremely important for the Indian National Cricket Team with the Test season around the corner. The team is scheduled to play 10 games, five of which are against the Australian National Cricket Team and the rest at home against Bangladesh and New Zealand.
He will play an important role at the helm of the team in Australia. In the last two rounds, he has created a sensation for the team with the bat. In 2018-19, he scored a magnificent century in Sydney and was decent throughout the series with both bat and gloves.
However, his best came in the 2020-21 series. The wicketkeeper-batsman played an innings of 97 runs and helped India to a draw Sydney game. He then played an unbeaten innings of 89 runs in the next game to help India chase down the target and win the series at the Gabba.
But after returning from injury, he may not be the first choice goalkeeper in the team. In his absence, Ishan Kishan, KL Rahul and Dhruv Jurel have made valuable contributions to the team. In all, Pant scored 2,271 runs at an average of 43.67, including five centuries, in 33 games for India.
