The head coach of the Delhi Capitals Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Ricky Ponting has opened up on the absence of regular captain and wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant, who suffered a near-fatal car crash late last year and who will don the wicketkeeper’s gloves in Pant’s absence.
In the upcoming 2023 edition of the Indian Premier League, Delhi Capitals will be without their regular captain and keeper-batter Rishabh Pant. While DC has announced its new skipper David Warner for IPL 2023, however, it is hard to find a suitable wicketkeeper batter with the potential of Pant.
For the unversed, Pant was ruled out of the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League because of the multiple injuries that he sustained in the near-fatal car crash late last year.
Rishabh was appointed as the captain of DC for IPL 2021 and guided the team to finish as the table-toppers in the league stage. However, they failed to reach the final of the tournament, losing the Qualifier 2 round to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). Last year, DC had an average campaign and failed to make the playoffs, having won only 14 matches and finishing 5th in the standings.
Who Will Be Delhi Capitals’ Wicketkeeper In IPL 2023? Ricky Ponting Answered
As Pant is unavailable for the season, Delhi based club has limited choice in the Wicketkeeping department on their side. In the IPL 2023 auction, they bagged the services of English wicketkeeper, Phil Salt for INR 2 crore, but it will interesting to see if they will go with Salt or with the part-time keeper, Sarfaraz Khan.
Meanwhile, Ricky Ponting said that hey have yet to decide who will be the Capitals’ first-choice wicketkeeper in Pant’s absence and will take a look at the practice games. He said: “We haven’t decided that yet. Sarfaraz (Khan) has joined us and we’ll look at the practice games ahead to decide that. That’s one big hole Rishabh leaves behind. With the impact player rule coming in, we can use a number of ways (to zero in on playing lineup).”
