File photo of Rishabh Pant.© BCCI
Rishabh Pant has once again proven himself as one of the most valuable players in the Indian cricket team. The star suffered a horrific car crash in December 2022 and missed more than a year of action as he was recovering from it. He made his comeback to competitive cricket with IPL 2024 before winning the T20 World Cup with the Indian team. The southpaw was also part of India’s three-match T20I series in Sri Lanka. After this, Pant played the Duleep Trophy for India B, but interestingly, he was not made the skipper and instead played under Abhimanyu Easwaran‘s captaincy. While the move surprised many cricket pundits, it also raised doubts over Pant’s value as a captain.
However, Pant’s terrific performances in the following two Test series against Bangladesh and New Zealand have once again put him among the most valuable players. Former India crickter Aakash Chopra praised the wicketkeeper-batter’s comeback and asked whether it was a right choice to not name him the captain during Duleep Trophy.
“When the Duleep Trophy teams were picked, Rishabh Pant was selected, but Abhimanyu Easwaran was the captain of that team. Pant featured as a player but not a captain in that tournament. We were left wondering if he is no longer a captaincy candidate,” said Chopra on his YouTube channel.
“But now that home season is over, we suddenly feel he is the captain, he is the saviour, our crisis man, one who can even play in poor batting conditions. He is the only one who can play with dominance, playing with so much confidence, he can hit sixes and has the defensive game.
“So was Pant misjudged? I mean, he was not named as a captain in the Duleep Trophy, and now he is the most valuable Indian player in Test cricket, or even across the globe.”
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