Rishabh Pant. (Photo Source: Instagram/delhi_capitals)
Due to a horrific car accident at the fag end of 2022, Rishabh Pant is currently out of action and it may take him more than a year to make his return to professional cricket. However, in Delhi’s first home match of IPL 2023 against Gujarat Titans, the southpaw was present in the Arun Jaitley Stadium and even met some of the players of both teams after the match.
In a video shared by DC on their social media, it could be seen that the 25-year-old spent quite some time with head coach Ricky Ponting and was also spotted talking to stand-in skipper David Warner.
Axar Patel, meanwhile, was spotted having a chat and laughing with Pant while some of Gujarat Titans’ players including Shubman Gill and Wriddhiman Saha came to visit the cricketer in DC’s dressing room. GT coach Ashish Nehra was seen talking to Pant as well.
GT handed DC their second consecutive defeat
In the match, Gujarat Titans emerged supreme after a brilliant batting display from youngster Sai Sudharsan. Chasing 163 runs, GT needed a strong start but unfortunately, the visiting side lost three quick wickets of Saha, Gill and Hardik Pandya.
However, Sudarshan rose up to the occasion and played some brilliant cricket to bail Gujarat out of a difficult situation. David Miller supported him well in the middle, as the South Africa international smashed 31* runs off 16 deliveries. With that, Gujarat chased down the total with 11 balls remaining and handed DC their second consecutive defeat of the season.
Meanwhile, after the match, Sudharsan opened up and stated that he was not under pressure the whole time and was concentrating more on the kind of shots he wanted to play.
“A little bit nervous as this is my first time here. I was thinking what has to be done right. I wasn’t under pressure, I was just calculating the right things. It was a bit low and skidding through, I was thinking to take the right options. My plan was to take the game deep and taking it through. Weathering the storm early on (was more satisfying). It was quite difficult, it was seaming initially, that was the highlight for me,” Sudharsan was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.