Rishabh Pant is set to make a come back to competitive cricket in IPL 2024 after a harrowing accident 14 months ago. It’s time to give one of cricket’s most real and genuine characters the warmest of welcomes, writes Naman Agarwal.

For some, sport is about winning. For others, it is about the thrill of competition. Some find an escape in sport, while some are lured into it during moments of brilliance despite not being attached.

At the heart of all sportspeople, fans, and sport in general however, lies a common, often unacknowledged need to be part of something larger than life.

Not many sportspeople in recent times have been as full of life as Rishabh Pant.

A dodgy wicketkeeper to start with who evolved himself into a pair of safe hands behind the stumps and a batter whose creative strokes could make the best of artists feel humbled, Pant was so much more than the numbers he put up and the victories he pulled off.

Pant was the inner, innocent child in you who wanted to live unapologetically and have fun while doing so. He was beyond the shackles of the orthodox and the ordinary and forced you to recalibrate the limits of possibility.

Pant would make you laugh with his eccentricities on either side of the stumps, and he would make you scorn. You could be mad, but you just couldn’t be angry at him. You would try, but you would fail. He was that character.

Which is why when news broke out about his accident on the night of December 30, 2022, it was hard to accept. Surely, something like this can’t happen to someone like Pant.

As more and more details emerged, people feared for the worst. “Ye bhai gaya (He is gone),” was Axar Patel, his Delhi Capitals and India teammate’s first thought on hearing about the accident from Ishant Sharma’s wife.

The next few days and weeks were tough. No one knew whether he would play cricket again. No one cared. Survival was victory.

The first walk post-surgery came more than a month later. The first walk without crutches came a couple of months after. The BCCI carefully oversaw his recovery process at the National Cricket Academy (NCA), gradually rebuilding his strength, particularly in the ligaments of his right knee which had to be reconstructed entirely.

There were talks by the end of last year that Pant might return in the IPL as a batter and in limited capacity. It looked like a distant possibility. But in the Rishabh Pant world, what’s possible and what’s not has always been defined by the man himself. And now, against all odds, he is coming back.

On Tuesday (March 12), ten days ahead of the start of the IPL, the BCCI, much to everyone’s absolute delight, announced him fit and ready to play as a wicketkeeper-batter. 

Just in: Rishabh Pant has been declared completely fit!#RishabhPant #DelhiCapitals #IPL2024 pic.twitter.com/qb0N1QO4lk

— Wisden India (@WisdenIndia) March 12, 2024

It doesn’t matter if winning and only winning is what gets your juices flowing. It doesn’t matter if you don’t care about cricket. It doesn’t matter if you think IPL is destroying the sport. It doesn’t matter if he plays for a team you despise, Rishabh Pant is coming back and it is time to rejoice.

Pant was missed by cricket as much as he was missed by fans during the 14 months that he was gone. He hasn’t played a competitive game since his recovery. Jumping into the high-octane environment of the IPL might not be easy. The feet might not move as swiftly, the core might not pack as much strength as it used to, the sixes might be far and few in between, but it won’t matter.

The toothy grin will be there and so will the chirping behind the stumps (if he keeps wicket). The infectious positivity will draw you in. If you are the expressive kind, you might shed a few tears when you see him back on the field doing what he does best – live life to the fullest. And if you’re not, you’ll silently break into a smile as you look at your family members around you watching him with joy, and more importantly, relief. As if he is one of their own. Because he is one of their own.

It is also important to acknowledge the machinery that worked tirelessly behind the scenes to get Pant to where he is today. From the kind-hearted truck drivers who got him out of his car on that fateful night, to the doctors who operated on him, the physios and the trainers at the NCA who looked after his rehab routines, the Delhi Capitals, and the BCCI.

662 Days Later…Day 1 in DC colours 🥹#YehHaiNayiDilli #IPL2024 #RishabhPant pic.twitter.com/gIOz6ZNXkD

— Delhi Capitals (@DelhiCapitals) March 13, 2024

Getting this far has not been easy. And getting here this quickly is a is a story of incredible resilience and determination, qualities which often get lost under the cheerfulness of Pant.

“I’m excited and nervous at the same time. It feels like I’m going to make my debut again. To be able to play cricket again after everything I’ve been through is nothing short of a miracle,” Pant said in a statement today (March 13).

In a comment that went viral recently, Rohit Sharma had said, “There was this guy named Rishabh Pant in our team.” The “was” in there was tough to listen to. But in about ten days time, it is going to change. The “team” will be different, but it won’t matter. Pant will be back and no matter the kind of sports fan you are, you will be entertained.

Subscribe to the Wisden Cricket YouTube channel for post-match analysis, player interviews, and much more.