Rishabh Pant is 'hitting the ball as good as ever': Delhi Capitals coach Ricky Ponting

This year’s Indian Premier League (IPL) will witness Rishabh Pant make his long-awaited return to competitive cricket for the first time since he narrowly escaped with his life from a horror car crash in December 2022, with the 26-year-old set to continue as the Delhi Capitals captain.

His long absence from the sport, due to the seriousness of the accident as well as the extensive rehabilitation that followed, will naturally lead to questions over his form and whether Pant can deliver with the bat in the 17th season of the cash-rich league or not.

In what will come as great news for DC fans however, head coach Ricky Ponting has stated that Pant’s hitting of the ball appears to be solid as ever and his return certainly is having an effect on the dressing room by lifting the spirits of his teammates.

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Pant, who had been out for 14 months following a horrific car crash near his hometown Rourkee in December 2022, has been cleared by the BCCI to play both as a batter and wicket-keeper.

“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.

A huge kudos to all those who have tirelessly worked on Rishabh’s recovery at the NCA and BCCI 🤝🏻

Our Chairman & Co-owner, Mr. Parth Jindal, is equally excited for Rishabh Pant's inspirational comeback 💯#YehHaiNayiDilli #TATAIPL pic.twitter.com/b66L8wgncX

— Delhi Capitals (@DelhiCapitals) March 15, 2024

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However, the coach admitted that the team is yet to pick up pace even though only eight days (23 March) are left for DC’s first game against Punjab Kings in Mullanpur’s newly-constructed Stadium.

“It’s just the start. We don’t expect to be practising 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,” said the former Australia skipper, referring to the workload at the training session.

“What I saw today was very exciting, very promising. It’s great to be back with the Delhi Capitals family,” the coach said.

Read | 'Conversations with VVS Laxman, good meal': Pant on recovery process

It is not just the players, who need to up their intensity but the coach himself wants to raise his level of preparedness.

Asked about the team’s approach this year, Ponting said, “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.”

For Ponting, it is not about qualification for the last-four but winning the elusive championship for the franchise.

“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.

With PTI inputs