India’s wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant’s cricket career came to a halt on December 30, 2022. Pant’s automobile crashed into a crash barrier, overturned, and caught fire, injuring him brutally. After being fortunate enough to survive, he was rushed to a hospital and then airlifted to Mumbai for treatment and surgery. After making a comeback in the 2024 IPL, he played for India again in the T20 World Cup, which the country won.
The 27-year-old is currently part of India’s squad in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy. He quickly restored his position as India’s first-choice wicketkeeper upon his return, and he has been playing that position with ease in Australia.
Former Australian wicketkeeper Ian Healy believes that Pant is still a work in progress. He recently gave an analysis of his wicketkeeping technique.
“Rishabh Pant is a work in progress, but I saw him in the mornings and like the drills he is doing; he is bound to improve more. At times, as he did when he dropped a catch in this series earlier, he can make an initial wrong movement. Some keepers like to move a touch to their left first and then press from there. It’s better to be still and if you can’t, then you start that trigger movement a touch early so that by the time the ball is out there, you can still press to the right side. One of those two decisions have to be made,” said Healy during an interview.
Pant has only scored 96 runs in three games during the current series, demonstrating poor batting performance. Rain caused the third match to end in a tie, tying the series at one. Pant has helped out with the gloves in the interim, but he also missed a few opportunities. He dropped Nathan McSweeney in what appeared to be an easy chance on the first day of the second BGT test. He has recorded 19 catches in the three games.