Rishabh bats at nets, shows improved fitness; links with India teammates

Rishabh Pant. Pic/AFP

Rishabh Pant on Tuesday gave another hint of improving fitness and match-readiness while batting for some 20 minutes at the Chinnaswamy nets before his Indian teammates entered the venue for practice. Clad in black shots and T-shirt, Pant faced throwdowns from NCA staff, dishing out some drives on the off-side and a few nudges to the on-side.

He exchanged a few words with Indian team's side-arm specialist Raghu before proceeding to meet other members like Virat Kohli, Rinku Singh among others. Pant is continuing his recovery at the NCA from a horrible car accident in late 2022, an accident that forced him to have ligament reconstruction surgeries. Pant is expected to return to action during the IPL 2024 as he has been named as Delhi Capitals captain.

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The 26-year-old had attended the Capitals camp in November last year, besides being present at the franchise's auction table at Dubai in December. Sourav Ganguly, the Capitals' director of cricket, too had exuded confidence in Pant's return in this year's IPL.

"He's (Pant) good now. He will play in the IPL next season. There's still time for him to get down to practice. By January (2024), he'll get even better," Ganguly had said during the DC camp at Jadavpur University Salt Lake Campus. Pant's last appearance for India was in a Test match against Bangladesh at Mirpur in December 2022. Meanwhile, Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) felicitated the Cooch Behar Trophy U19 team members on Tuesday with India head coach Rahul Dravid meeting the budding players. Karnataka won the event on Monday by virtue of their first innings lead over Mumbai.

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