On December 30, 2022, Rishabh Pant was granted a new life. The wicketkeeper batter was India’s best all-format player at the moment, but an unfortunate accident changed the landscape of his life. He went from being touted as the next Men in Blue skipper to learning how to walk again.
Pant later admitted how tough that period was. The Delhi Capitals skipper feared that he’d never be able to be back at his best. His will and determination have helped him overcome all those obstacles and return to cricket in an empathic fashion. It only took him a month to show BCCI selectors that he was the same player he used to be and earn himself a spot in India’s T20 World Cup 2024 squad.
Being inches away from death to representing India once again, that too at the highest level, is something Pant would have been dreaming of for the last 15-16 months. That dreaded day has brought a lot of pain to Rishabh Pant, and so he’ll cherish this opportunity even more and give his all to lead the India cricket team to ultimate glory.
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Indian wicketkeepers IPL 2024 performances
The reason why Rishabh Pant has found himself in the T20 World Cup 2024 squad isn’t the credit in his bank. He has been the best wicketkeeper batter in the IPL 2024 so far. He’s the highest run-scorer, is leading his team decently, and has the most dismissals of any wicketkeeper in the league.
As a middle to lower-middle-order batter, Pant only had to compete with Jitesh Sharma, Dhruv Jurel, and Dinesh Karthik. Ishan Kishan, KL Rahul, and Sanju Samson were already fighting for one spot as top-order batters. Among the four, Pant is clearly the best. He has scored almost double the runs of Jitesh and Jurel and has more dismissals as a wicketkeeper than all three combined.
The numbers suggest that only Karthik comes close to him. But Pant’s age, left-handedness, and proven track record have worked in his favor, while Jurel and Jitesh haven’t done anything substantial to make their case.
| Player | Matches | Runs | Avg | SR | Dismissals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rishabh Pant | 11 | 398 | 44.22 | 158.56 | 14 |
| KL Rahul | 9 | 378 | 42 | 144.27 | 11 |
| Ishan Kishan | 9 | 212 | 23.55 | 165.62 | 7 |
| Jitesh Sharma | 9 | 128 | 16 | 125.49 | 10 |
| Dhruv Jurel | 9 | 102 | 25.5 | 134.21 | – |
| Dinesh Karthik | 10 | 262 | 52.4 | 195.52 | 2 |
| Sanju Samson | 9 | 385 | 77 | 161.08 | 7 |
India’s T20 World Cup 2024 squad
Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj.
Reserves – Shubman Gill, Rinku Singh, Khaleel Ahmed and Avesh Khan.
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