After losing the first Test by eight wickets in Bengaluru on Sunday, India will be concerned about Rishabh Pant’s fitness going into the second Test against New Zealand next week. The India star had skirted his wicketkeeping obligations in the second innings of the main Test after being refreshed over Day 3 following a knee injury on Day 2.
Rishabh Pant’s Knee Injury
Pant was helped off the field as Dhruv Jurel replaced him because he had hurt his knee while fielding on Thursday. On Day 3, the BCCI Medical Team advised the wicketkeeper to rest as a precaution, but Pant returned to play and scored a brave 99 in the second innings before opting out of keeping on Sunday.
‘We Will Be Extra Careful With Rishabh Pant’ – Rohit Sharma
In the post-match conference on Sunday, India captain Rohit Sharma acknowledged that the management would need to be “extra careful” with Rishabh Pant because he suffered an injury to the same knee where he had surgery in 2023 following a car accident.
He has, to be honest, gone through a lot of trauma over the past one and a half years, having had a number of minor surgeries and one major knee surgery. Therefore, it’s just a matter of extra caution, not just caution with him,” Rohit stated.
Will Dhruv Jurel Replace Him?
With the extremely significant Border Gavaskar Trophy series in Australia simply a month away, where Pant would be required like never before, India would need to keep him fit and maybe a choice to rest him for the second New Zealand Test would be a shrewd call. In addition, India do have a competent back-up in Dhruv Jurel, who impressed the selectors on his debut against England earlier this year with his batting and wicketkeeping.
“It’s just to be a little careful about where he is at and what he is to us. Even when he was batting, he was not comfortably running. He was trying to only put the ball in the stands.” Rohit Says about Rishabh Pant.
