Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting labeled Rishabh Pant as a winner and added that what the Indian wicketkeeper-batter has done for his team in such a short time, is a testament of his greatness.
Even though a life-threatening injury had kept him out of cricket since 2022, Pant made an incredible comeback with the T20 World Cup this June. He has now again cemented his place in the Indian squad in all 3 formats. As India gears up for the upcoming Border-Gavaskar series, Pant will be key to India’s chances of securing a hat-trick of Test series wins Down Under.
Due to his playfulness and chatter on the stump mic, Pant is often regarded as a ‘fun’ player, however Ponting warned opponents to not get fooled by this narrative.
“We’ve all seen him play and heard him in the stump mic, he’s an infectious character to have around the group. He loves his cricket, he’s a winner, that’s what he is. He doesn’t just play to make a few runs and be out there for the fun of it. He must have 4 or 5 Test hundreds already and he’s got about nine 90s as well. (MS) Dhoni played for 120 Tests (90) and made 3 or 4 hundreds (6), this is how good this guy (Pant) is. He’s a serious cricketer,” Ponting said on Sky Sports.
Pant was one of India’s most important players during their 2-1 series triumph against Australia in 2021. His fabulous inning of 97 massively helped the Men in Blue in pulling off a draw in Sydney while his knock of 89 in Brisbane proved to be crucial to India’s victory.
Ponting, who formerly coached the Delhi Capitals, was in constant touch with Pant during his recovery from the accident. He was incredibly impressed with how confident Pant has looked since his return to international cricket earlier this year.
“It’s a remarkable comeback. If you can see even his leg now and listen to the stories he tells about what he confronted during his car accident, just the mental scarring that comes with that but the physical side and the rehab he went through, I didn’t think he would play last year’s IPL (2024),”Ponting said.
“But 12 months before, he said ‘Don’t worry about me, I guarantee you I’ll be right for the IPL’. We thought he’ll be able to bat and we might have to use him as a sub player (Impact Player) but he kept every game, was one of our leading run-scorers, bats No. 3 in the T20 World Cup and is part of a World Cup winning team and is named in the Test squad now,” Ponting added.
