Rishabh Pant, who made his return in the white-ball format for T20 World Cup this year, will be playing his first test match after almost two years since the horrific car crash that ruled him out of entire 2023 season.
The star wicketkeeper-batter is back with India squad for the first test against Bangladesh scheduled to be held in MA Chidambaram Stadium at Chennai from September 19.
Former India captain Sourav Ganguly believes that Rishabh Pant is on course to become an all-time great in Test cricket but at the same time he needs to improve his game at shorter formats.
To my mind Rishabh Pant is one of India’s best Test batsmen without any doubt about it and therefore I am not surprised about him being included once again into the team who will continue playing Tests for India,” he said during an event for promoting something PTI quoted from him while attending an event.
“If he keeps performing like this, he will be an all-time great in Tests. For me, he needs to get better in the shorter formats. With the talent he has, I’m sure with time, he will become one of the best.”
The Test was played on in Mirpur, Bangladesh from December 22 through to December 25, 2022, before Pant was involved in an accident on December 30 of the same year and only returned to top-flight cricket at this year’s IPL.
At 26 years old he was reintegrated into the national squad during their successful T20 World Cup title defense.
Recently, Pant played in red-ball cricket during the Duleep trophy where he scored fifty runs and thus helped India B beat India A by 70 runs. He showed class behind stumps when clearing any doubts about being first choice for wicketkeeper batsman in the upcoming two-match Test series against Bangladesh.
This series starts off India’s international home season for 2024-25, where they will be hosting two Tests against Bangladesh. Furthermore, Men selection Committee has selected a team of sixteen players for first test match with Bangladesh. After second test culminating at Kanpur, other fixtures include three T20Is with Bangladesh by India.