Rishabh Pant turns 27 today. It is certainly a special day for him compared to how he celebrated his birthday last year. The cricketer survived a life-threatening car accident in December 2022 on New Year's Eve. He had sustained multiple injuries to his body in the accident and at the time, there was no surety of his comeback to the sport either. But the dynamic cricketer returned to competitive cricket with the Indian Premier League (IPL) this year.
He proved his fitness in IPL and made it to India's T20 World Cup eventually winning the tournament. He then returned to the ODI set up in August for the Sri Lanka tour and completed his international comeback in the home Test series against Bangladesh. Pant was India's first-choice wicketkeeper across all formats before his accident and has seamlessly returned to the team now.
Rishabh Pant's international career
| Format |
Matches (Innings) |
Runs |
Average |
Strike-rate |
50s/100s |
| Tests |
35 (60) |
2432 |
44.21 |
74.14 |
11/6 |
| ODIs |
31 (27) |
871 |
33.5 |
106.21 |
5/1 |
| T20Is |
76 (66) |
1209 |
23.25 |
127.26 |
3/0 |
His career hit a roadblock almost two years ago but the man, with his hard work, recovered and has successfully reclaimed his place in the Indian team again. Not that he has returned only on reputation. He has performed extremely well too with crucial knocks in the T20 World Cup and notching up a second-innings century against Bangladesh. Moreover, he has already become the second-highest run-getter among Indian wicketkeepers in international cricket only behind MS Dhoni.
Moreover, the left-hander has time and again stressed the fact that his perspective towards life has changed big time since his accident. The maturity is showing in his behaviour on his return to the field and his performances with the bat and gloves are also speaking for himself.
One has to give it to Rishabh Pant for not succumbing to injuries after the accident and fighting back in the way only he could've. On his 27th birthday, Rishabh Pant will be looking forward to continuing his good run at the international level and at the same time, keep coming up with proven performances across all formats.
