Former India captain Sourav Ganguly has urged fans and experts to allow Rishabh Pant to play more matches freely without thinking about his chances of returning to the senior national team. When asked about the wicketkeeper-batter's T20 World Cup selection chances, Ganguly said it's important that the Delhi captain plays a few more matches and eases into the rigiours of competitive cricket.
Rishabh Pant has been impressive on his return to the IPL after having survived a nearly fatal road accident in December 2022. Pant has shown no signs of trouble after having regained full fitness following multiple surgeries to treat his injuries. After having handed the responsibility of leading the Capitals again, Pant has looked in control with the bat, scoring 152 runs in 4 matches, including 2 fifties. Pant took fans down memory lane by coming up with his trademark no-look sixes in Delhi's last two matches - a win against CSK and a defeat to KKR in Vizag.
Pant hit 5 sixes and 4 boundaries for his 25-ball 55 against KKR, but Delhi ended up on the losing side as they fell 106 runs short of a mammoth 273-run target. However, Pant scored a match-winning fifty for Delhi in their only win of the season, which came against CSK earlier in the week.
"Rishabh is fully fit. His form has been fantastic. He is keeping and batting well but let him play a few matches more: If the national selectors want him, I should be able to judge in another week," Sourav Ganguly told the press in Mumbai ahead of DC's away game at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday.
In the lead-up to the season, speculation about Pant's recovery and his ability to play the full season arose. However, after the BCCI medical team at the National Cricket Academy declared him fit, Pant not only was named as captain, but also took on the wicketkeeping duties for the Capitals in IPL 2024.
Pant is facing stiff competition for the wicketkeepers' slots in the T20 World Cup side as the likes of Jitesh Sharma, Sanju Samson and Ishan Kishan will be in the race. It would also be interesting to see if the senior national selection committee would want to rush Pant back to international cricket. The T20 World Cup will be played in the USA and the West Indies from June 1
Nonetheless, Pant will be keen on helping Delhi return to winning ways when they take on the struggling MI side in Mumbai on Sunday. While DC are at the 9th spot with 3 wins in 4 matches, MI are yet to open their account after losing their first 3 matches of the season.
"Mumbai are a good team, we are a good team as well. We won one game against Chennai. We expect Mumbai to play well because they have been a great franchise for a long period of time. They have some quality players in their squad," Ganguly said, stressing DC will not take MI lightly.
"But T20 is such a format that sometimes you get into this situation, where you lose a couple of games and then find a way to get back. It's going to be a good game tomorrow. We will compete, we are a good team as well, we have some quality players," he added.
