Rishabh Pant plays warm-up match in Alur, set to see tweak in role in for IPL

Indian cricketer Rishabh Pant is eyeing a return to competitive cricket as he has played his first full warm-up match after the near-fatal car crash he suffered in December 2022. Pant is set to return to action for the Indian Premier League 2024 and according to Ricky Ponting, he is "very confident" of playing the full season. However, his role will reportedly be tweaked a bit.

According to a report in Crizbuzz, Pant will be participating in the tournament as a batter and is poised to be the captain, but the team will play another wicketkeeper in the Playing XI. In a good piece of news, he is able to run and bat with the same agility and freedom as he used to do before the December accident, suggesting his mobility is intact.

Pant has posted a video of his



wicket-keeping drills on his social media. He can be seen wicketkeeping in indoor nets. He also posted a picture of the Alur Cricket Stadium in an Instagram story. He also did batting drills. 

The wicket-keeper batter remains active on social media and has kept his fans updated about his recovery road. He also took part in the IPL 2024 auctions in Dubai and played a role in strategising the team for the upcoming season.

In his absence in 2023, David Warner led the Capitals last year but the team struggled big in the league phase. They could win only five matches in 14 outings and finished ninth, only above Sunrisers Hyderabad. In the previous season, the team tested several players to keep wickets. Sarfaraz Khan, Abhishek Porel and Phil Salt did the wicket-keeping duties.