The India captaincy has arrived to Rishabh Pant much earlier than perhaps he or anyone would have thought of. But here is: barring any match-day injury, Rishabh Pant will be leading Team India, for the first time in his career, in the 5 T20I series against South Africa starting Thursday in Delhi.
Rishabh Pant Was Named Team India’s Captain For IND vs SA
This news was announced by the BCCI after KL Rahul, the designated captain for this series, was ruled out due to a groin injury. Rahul, the original vice-captain in limited-overs cricket, was set to lead in this series because regular skipper Rohit Sharma was rested.
Now as fate has it, Rishabh Pant, who was appointed as KL Rahul’s deputy for this series, is now promoted to the captaincy job of the national side, with Hardik Pandya, who led Gujarat Titans to the IPL 2022 title, named as the vice-captain.
To think: Pant wasn’t even in India’s first-eleven until the Australia tour about 18 months ago, now he will lead the country for the first time; and Hardik Pandya is only making his comeback and never was in the leadership radar, now is the vice-captain.
RCB Posted A Hilarious Tweet
Wishes started to pour in for Rishabh Pant for his maiden captaincy stint in national colours.
The most hilarious one came from the Royal Challengers Bangalore’s Twitter handle who, recalling Pant’s singing of the famous Spiderman song, wrote: “Time for Spiderman to lead the band of Superheroes in Blue.”
Here, check out RCB’s funny tweet congratulating Rishabh Pant:
Time for Spiderman to lead the band of Superheroes in Blue.
Congratulations to @RishabhPant17 for being named captain. Wishing KL Rahul and Kuldeep Yadav a speedy recovery.#PlayBold #WeAreChallengers #INDvSA
— Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets) June 8, 2022
“Captain Pantastic” is how Delhi Capitals greeted their captain via a tweet, celebrating Pant’s ascension to the helm:
Here’s wishing @RishabhPant17 and @hardikpandya7 all the very best for their first assignment as Captain and Vice-Captain respectively
— Delhi Capitals (@DelhiCapitals) June 8, 2022
Pant has captained Delhi Capitals in 30 IPL matches, winning 17 and losing 13; he took the franchise to the playoffs last season but failed to reach the final.
In the pre-match press conference, Pant said: “It’s a great feeling, especially getting an opportunity like this in your hometown. There is nothing bigger than this. It didn’t come under very good circumstances but I will try to make most of it and give my 100%.
“I think it [having captained in the IPL] will help me a lot because when you keep doing the same thing over a period of time, you tend to improve.”
Along with KL Rahul, leg-spinner Kuldeep Yadav has also been ruled out of the series owing to an injury he sustained in his hand while batting in the nets.
