NEWS
Follow UsThe wait is over as Rishabh Pant has returned to Test cricket for the first time since December 2022, ending a 635-day wait. Pant last played Test cricket for India on December 25, 2022, in Dhaka against Bangladesh, where team India won a closely contested match by three wickets.
In the aftermath of the Dhaka Test against Bangladesh, Pant suffered a horrific, life-threatening car crash on December 30, 2022, that put him out of action from all cricket till the 2024 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) earlier this year.
However, the 26-year-old has since made an impressive comeback to professional cricket, making heads turn in IPL 2024 — 446 runs @ 40.55 and 155.40 — before earning his place back in all three formats of the game.
READ: Rishabh Pant's journey from Mirpur to Chennai: A timeline
Pant was a part of India’s starting XI in all games in the successful T20 World Cup 2024 campaign in the United States & the Caribbean, and also played in the ODI series against Sri Lanka in August.
The return of Pant in Tests is a huge shot in the arm for team India. The left-hander has been one of the most successful wicketkeepers in the world in the red-ball format, with his average of 47.60 in Tests being the second-best for a wicketkeeper since the start of 2021.
The only wicketkeeper to average more with the bat in this period (min 500 runs) is, incidentally, Pant’s counterpart in the Chennai Test, Litton Das, who has averaged 49.79 since the start of 2021.
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