The remaking of Rishabh Pant | Cricket News

THE SCREAMS piercing through the nights at the Dehradun hospital still haunt Umesh Kumar. It was to Umesh, a family friend and an independent MLA from Uttarakhand, that Rishabh Pant’s mother had turned to for help in the early hours of December 30, 2022, when the star cricketer met with a horrific car accident near Roorkee.It has been 15 months since the accident that left Pant’s right knee twed at an impossible 90-degree angle. The leg had to be straightened before he could be brought out of the car. On March 12, the Indian cricket board announced that the wicketkeeper-batsman is fit and will make a return to competitive cricket with the Indian Premier League (IPL). On March 23, he is set to captain Delhi Capitals against Punjab Kings in Mohali.This is the remarkable tale of Rishabh Pant’s recovery.
‘Couldn’t believe he came out alive’
“He kept shouting through the night. I can still hear those screams. He was having anxiety attacks. He tried to keep his cool but he was in unbearable pain,” Umesh tells The Indian Express.
Rishabh Pant after walking on the terrace at his home post the surgery (Instagram | Rishabh Pant)
He shudders at the memory of the sight that awaited him at the hospital when he landed there after answering a phone call from Pant’s mother Saroj at 6:15 in the morning.
“His teeth were the only thing that wasn’t red,” says Umesh, recalling what he saw of a bloodsoaked Pant. “When I saw the burning car in the accident video, I couldn’t believe he came out alive. When I later asked him, he smiled saying, ‘Bhaiya, aap aa gaye (brother, you are here),” says Umesh, MLA from Uttarakhand’s Khanpur constituency.
Devender Sharma, who was assant to Pant’s childhood coach, the late Tarak Sinha, too, remembers what he saw at the hospital.
“His muscles were hanging out of his body. From the back of his neck to the lower wa, you could see his bones. It took five hours to put on the bandage. He was given anaesthesia twice in the process. His body looked like a piece of wood, peeled completely,” says Sharma, who now runs Tarak Sinha’s Sonnet Cricket Club in Delhi. From December 30 to January 5, officials, leaders and well-wishers streamed into the hospital to meet him. The nights were hell.

Umesh Kumar credits Rajat Kumar and Nishu Kumar, two youngsters who dragged Pant out of the car and rushed him to hospital, with saving his life.
“Those two boys were a godsend. They saved Rishabh’s life… On December 30, the doctors at the Dehradun hospital had given up and the plan was to airlift him to Delhi, but we couldn’t find a chopper and the fog also made it worse. He was shrieking in pain. The knees and the ligaments were broken. The immediate priority was to save him,” says Umesh.
A week later, Pant was shifted to Mumbai’s Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital.
‘Will he walk again?’
That was Rishabh’s mother’s worry when she met Dr Dinshaw Pardiwala, Director, Centre for Sports Medicine, at the Kokilaben hospital who performed a knee surgery on Pant.
Rishabh Pant alongside India captain Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. (BCCI/PTI)
“Rishabh’s mother was very concerned about whether he will ever be able to walk again. I told her, ‘Look, I can at least promise you that we’ll make sure that he walks again’… because this is such a severe injury. But it will be a long-drawn process,” Pardiwala recalled on bcci.tv.
“Rishabh remembers very well that his knee was completely out and was lying almost 90 degrees to the normal position. During the process of being pulled out, because there were glass pieces everywhere, his skin got scraped off, so that added to the whole, you know, soft tissue injury part of it. So, from the bone and joint part, he had… broken a lot of things,” he said.
Amid all that bleakness, however, there was hope. “Fortunately for him, his blood vessels, which supply blood to the rest of the leg that was intact. And his nerves, which supply sensation, were also intact. For us as knee surgeons, knee dislocation is one of the worst injuries because everything breaks… You need to get back movement so that the knee doesn’t get stiff and, at the same time, you need enough muscle strength to allow that movement,” he added.
Screengrab: Pant performing full squats while keeping in the indoor nets. (Rishabh Pant on X)
Dhananjay Kaushik, physiotherap at the National Cricket Academy (NCA), Bengaluru, where Pant spent months in rehab, was amazed at Pant’s positive attitude. “Talking about the right knee, none of the ligaments were spared during that accident. You talk about ACL and PCL (anterior and posterior cruciate ligament), lateral collateral ligament, medial collateral ligament, popliteus muscle in the lower leg, as well as part of the quadriceps… you name it and he didn’t have it,” Kaushik said on bcci.tv.
‘Fortunate to have a second life’
After being bedridden for almost 45 days, Pant posted an image of himself walking on his terrace using crutches. “One step stronger, one step better,” read the caption. On April 5, 2023, with a heavily strapped knee, he made his first public appearance during the Delhi Capitals’ match against Gujarat Titans in Delhi.

A month later, on May 5, he posted a heartwarming video of walking without the crutches. A month later, he posted another video, this time of him walking up a flight of stairs.
In July, he started his strength training and two months later, started jogging. In the meantime, he went on a trip to Kedarnath and Badrinath. MLA Umesh, who accompanied him, says, “After the surgery, I promised him that once he started walking I would take him to Kedar and Badri. When he started running, he gave me a call and said, let’s go. After those seven days that I spent with him in the Dehradun hospital, to see him walking, doing all his spidey stuff on the hilly terrain was so heartwarming.”
A quick timeline on Rishabh Pant’s injury and recovery.
All through these months, Pant recorded small but significant victories: to be able to walk without crutches, even to be able to brush his teeth and bathe effortlessly.
“I didn’t think I would ever enjoy brushing my teeth. The first time I took a bath, I didn’t feel like coming out. These small things gave me joy because I’m fortunate to have a second life. Not everyone is fortunate enough to get it,” he said in an interview with Star Sports.
‘Lift shot is back and so is Rishabh Pant’
Nishanta Bordoloi, strength and conditioning coach at NCA, says the whole episode has transformed Pant as a person.
A glance on Rishabh Pant’s injury and Recovery chart.
“It has made him a better human being. He now respects life more than ever. It has just made him more resilient and stronger. He was a very good human being, he has become an even better person now,” says Bordoloi.
Coach Sharma echoes Bordoli’s views. “I met him a day before he went to Vizag for the IPL matches (Delhi plays two matches here). Post the injury and the recovery period, he has become noticeably more mature. He is hurt that he missed the home World Cup, the WTC final, the Test series… It is normal. There is pain but it is normal,” he says.
“I saw all his injuries. It has completely healed. Rehab has been excellent. He has lost 10 kg in two months. He was training three times a day.
He did it with a lot of patience,” Sharma adds.
Sharma says that during the recovery period, Pant would often talk about his wicketkeeping and resolve to be a better version of himself in his second coming. “Mai first match se keeping karunga, bhaiya, mujhe impact player ban ke nahi khelna (I will keep wickets from the first match itself. I don’t want to be the Impact Player). I want to play better than I used to before the injury… He would keep repeating these two lines,” recalls Sharma.
The IPL’s Impact Player rule allows one substitute player per team to play an active part in matches with bator ball.
Sharma says that when Pant spoke to him from the NCA, he assured him that while he was still in pain, there was nothing to worry.“He batted for two hours in Alur (near Bengaluru). He played with the pain but he enjoyed it. He told me there is nothing to worry about. I saw the video… The lift shot (over the bowler’s head) is back and so is Rishabh Pant,” said Devender.
As cool as Dhoni
In his interview with Star Sports, Pant spoke of his relationship with M S Dhoni and how he often jokes with the former India captain about setting the bar too high.
“Mai bolta hun aap toh legend ban gaye aur mere liye muskil kar gaye (I tell Dhoni, you have become a legend and it has made my life difficult),” Pant said, talking of how he is often compared to his mentor Dhoni.
Pant’s style of play and exuberance, including those cheeky one-liners behind the stumps, have drawn comparisons with Dhoni. As IPL captain and in his wicketkeeper-batsman role, Pant had even started to redefine the boundaries of coolness Dhoni set as India’s crisis man.
“When I was struggling with my glove work in international matches, I asked him (Dhoni), ‘Bhaiya, I don’t make too many makes in IPL matches but while playing for India, I fumble a lot. Bhaiya said, ‘Play international matches like you play the IPL’,” Pant said in his interview to Star Sports.
Coach Sharma says that while Dhoni has always mentored Pant over the years, in these past 14 months, he has been more of an elder brother.
“Dhoni kept talking to him, motivating him. He had his arm around Rishabh’s shoulder when he needed it the most. Even at Rishabh’s ser’s engagement, Dhoni was very active,” says Sharma.
‘Goosebumps at the thought of playing’
On the Club Prairie Fire podcast co-hosted former England captain Michael Vaughan and his childhood hero Adam Gilchr, Pant revealed what his return to cricket meant for him.
Rishabh Pant has been declared fit the BCCI medical team and he will play as a wicketkeeper-batter in the upcoming IPL. (Express File)
“I am excited but nervous at the same time. When you are sitting outside talking about the return it is a different thing. But when you return inside the field, it is a completely different atmosphere. I am having goosebumps thinking about it,” said Pant.
A question that has accompanied Pant’s much anticipated return to the field is whether there will be changes in the way he plays his cricket.
Speaking to The Indian Express, former India wicketkeeper Ajay Ratra anticipates a couple of challenges: “The knee takes a lot of load while doing the squats… He might have to change his wicketkeeping technique a bit. For example, now lots of keepers don’t crouch fully against the seamers. That could be one of the changes.”
Ratra says the bigger question is how Pant responds to the pressure situation. “Although you want to forget about the injury, the muscle memory will always be there. If the knee has recovered well then it should not be a big deal for him to keep wickets in the Tests. Slowly and gradually, he will return to Test cricket as well,” says Ratra.
There is a lovely moment in the BCCI video where Pant talks about his comeback efforts.
“When I started walking without crutches, that was a high point. Then I started jogging a little bit, that was a high for me, then started batting, then started keeping as I took joy in everything.”
On March 23, as the Mohali floodlights shower on Rishabh Pant, the miracle man will take a bow.