Rishabh Pant will be making his first competitive appearance since suffering a toe injury during the tour of England a little over a week from now, with the Test vice-captain set to lead the India A team in two four-day games against South Africa A.
The first of those red-ball fixtures gets underway on 30 October while the second match takes place between 6 to 9 November, with the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru hosting both games.
Pant was earlier expected to make his comeback in in the second round of Ranji Trophy that gets underway from 25 October, in which Delhi face Himachal Pradesh at home. That, however, is likely to change due to the fact that the red-ball series against South Africa A getting underway less than 24 hours after after the scheduled conclusion of the Ranji Trophy second-round matches.
Top-order batter B Sai Sudharsan, meanwhile, has been named vice-captain while senior members of the Indian Test team including opener KL Rahul and pacer Mohammed Siraj have been included in the squad for the second four-day game.
Why Pant has been out of action since July
Pant has been out of action since he suffered a fractured toe while attempting to reverse sweep a searing yorker from England pacer Chris Woakes in July. The incident took place during the fourth Test against the Ben Stokes-led English team in Manchester, with Pant having to be driven off the ground in a buggy due to his inability to walk after the blow.
And while Pant did not keep wickets in that match, he braved immense pain and walked out to finish the remainder of his innings. The 28-year-old was batting on 37 when he suffered the injury on the opening day of the match, and walked out to bat on the following day, receiving a standing ovation from the Old Trafford crowd on his way to the centre.
Pant ended up completing one of the more memorable half-centuries of his career before getting castled by Jofra Archer for 54 as India were bowled out for 358.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsReserve wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel has been impressive with gloves as well as with bat in Pant’s absence, scoring his maiden Test century against West Indies in Ahmedabad earlier this month. He had earlier kept wickets for a majority of the third and fourth Tests against England at Lord’s and Old Trafford respectively, and had replaced Pant in the XI in the series finale at The Oval.
The 24-year-old keeper from Uttar Pradesh, however, will be expected to vacate the wicketkeeper’s slot right away once Pant returns to the senior team, although it remains to be seen if the Indian team management retains him in the playing XI purely as a batter in the middle order.
India A squads for four-day matches against South Africa A
Match 1: Rishabh Pant (capt, wk), Ayush Mhatre, N Jagadeesan (wk), Sai Sudharsan (vice-capt), Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar, Harsh Dubey, Tanush Kotian, Manav Suthar, Anshul Kamboj, Yash Thakur, Ayush Badoni, Saransh Jain.
Match 2: Rishabh Pant (capt, wk), KL Rahul, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Sai Sudharsan (vice-capt), Devdutt Padikkal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Harsh Dubey, Tanush Kotian, Manav Suthar, Khaleel Ahmed, Gurnoor Brar, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep.