Rishabh Pant likely to lead Delhi Capitals in IPL 2024 as pure batter: Reports

Star Indian wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant could reportedly mark his comeback to competitive cricket after almost 15 months as the captain of the Delhi Capitals (DC) in the IPL 2024 season.

According to Cricbuzz, Pant has shown great recovery from a horrific car accident that he suffered in December 2022 and also played a practice match in Alur.

As per the report, Pant is showing great mobility. He also batted and ran in the practice game just as well as he used to before the accident. However, sources told the aforementioned organization that Rishabh Pant will play as a pure batter for DC and they will have another option in their XI as a specialist wicketkeeper.

Pant is currently at the National Cricket Academy (NCA), but the DC authorities are confident of getting the clearance for the star batter to participate in IPL 2024.

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Ricky Ponting on Rishabh Pant's availability for IPL 2024

A couple of weeks ago, Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting was also unveiled as the head coach for the MLC franchise Washington Freedom. Speaking to the reporters, Ponting expressed his excitement on having Rishabh Pant potentially back for the entire IPL 2024 season.

Here's what he was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo:

"Rishabh is very confident that he's going to be right to play. You would have seen all the social-media stuff, he's up and about and running well. I'll guarantee if I asked him now he'll say, 'I'm playing every game, I'm keeping every game and I'm batting at No.4.' That's just what he's like, but we'll keep our fingers crossed. He's such a dynamic player. He's obviously our captain. We missed him incredibly last year."

Ponting had also clarified that if Pant was unavailable for DC, David Warner would lead the side in his absence. DC finished ninth in the IPL 2023 season with just five wins and felt the pinch of Pant's absence.