India’s star keeper-batter Rishabh Pant, who played an instrumental role in India’s historic Test series win over Australia in 2020-2021, will be a major missing from the Indian squad in the upcoming four-match series against the world’s No. 1 Test team. The 25-year-old keeper-batter is currently recovering from multiple injuries that he suffered in an unfortunate road accident on December 30, 2022. Besides his amazing keeping skills, the Indian cricket team will badly miss his aggressive batting performances in the longest format.
In his absence, the Indian team management has roped in KS Bharat and Ishan Kishan as the two keeper-batters, and one of them is expected to surely make his debut in the longest format of the game in the 1st match.
It will be a tough task to fill the shoes of Rishabh Pant, however, according to India’s senior spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, the Indian cricket team has a perfect player in its rank that can step up in the absence of Rishabh and do the job.
In a surprising revelation, Ravichandran Ashwin has snubbed both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli and instead backed Shreyas Iyer to fill the shoes of Rishabh. Speaking on his YouTube channel ahead of the much-awaited Test series, Ashwin showered praise on Iyer and said that the middle-order batter has been India’s “go-to batter” alongside Pant over the last few years. He said:
“Shreyas Iyer has been India’s go-to Test batter alongside Rishabh Pant in the last couple of years. That in itself is a lesser compliment for him. He has been the backbone of this batting order. He is going to be a crucial player for India in Pant’s absence,”
However, Shreyas Iyer has been ruled out of the first match with a back injury, the Mumbai batter, however, is likely to regain full fitness by the 2nd Test match onwards. For the unversed, Iyer had opted out of the ODI series against New Zealand and was later asked to undergo rehab at the National Cricket Academy (NCA).
It is learned that despite taking treatment, Iyer has still pain in his lower back and as a result, the NCA has advised the middle-order batter to take at least two weeks’ rest. Shreyas won’t be joining the Indian camp at Nagpur before the 1st Test match, starting February 2.
