Rishabh Pant’s Replacement For IPL 2023: Bengal keeper-batter Abishek Porel is set to rope in as Rishabh Pant’s replacement for the upcoming IPL 2023 season.
Porel was Named As Rishabh Pant’s Replacement
In the early morning of December 30, 2022 – a day before the start of the new year, Indian wicket-keeper batter Rishabh Pant met with a near-fatal car accident. Pant suffered multiple injuries when his BMW car collided with a road divider on the Delhi-Dehradun highway. Pant suffered injuries on his head, back and feet but is in stable condition.
Following his injury, Pant has been ruled out of the IPL 2023 season. After missing Pant, Delhi Capitals named David Warner as the captain of the Delhi Capitals team. Though they named an existing team player to replace his captaincy role, still Delhi Capitals was left behind in search of a player to keep the wicket.
According to a PTI journalist, Porel has done well in the warm-up games, and being young, he can be groomed. While the Bengal keeper is set to join DC for IPL 2023, Sarfaraz Khan could keep wickets for the franchise’s first few games of the season.
As for Abishek Porel, he was part of the training camp of Delhi Capitals for quite some time along with three other wicketkeepers – Luvnith Sisodia, Sheldon Jackson and Vivek Singh. Eventually, the franchise zeroed in on Porel as Pant’s replacement for the upcoming season.
Abishek Porel was part of India’s U19 World Cup winning squad last year and made his debut at the domestic level across formats only last year. So far, he has played 16 first-class, 3 List A and 3 T20 matches.
Ricky Ponting on Pant’s Absence
Delhi Capitals coach Ricky Ponting recently opened up on Pant’s absence from IPL 2023 due to a car accident. Admitting that the dynamic left-handed batter will be missed, the Australian legend said at an event:
“In an ideal world for me, he’d be sitting next to me in the dugout every match. But if that’s not possible, we’d like to make him part of the team in ways possible. We can have his number on our shirts or on caps. Just to make it clear that he’s our leader, even if he’s not with us.”
On DC’s first-choice wicketkeeper in the absence of Pant, Ponting said:
“We haven’t decided that yet. Sarfaraz (Khan) has joined us, and we’ll look at the practice games ahead to decide that. That’s one big hole Rishabh leaves behind. With the impact player rule coming in, we can use (it) a number of ways.”
Delhi Capitals squad for IPL 2023
Axar Patel, Prithvi Shaw, Anrich Nortje, David Warner (C), Mitchell Marsh, Sarfaraz Khan, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Mustafizur Rahman, Kuldeep Yadav, Khaleel Ahmed, Chetan Sakariya, Lalit Yadav, Ripal Patel, Yash Dhull, Rovman Powell, Pravin Dubey, Lungi Ngidi, Vicky Ostwal, Aman Khan, Phil Salt, Ishant Sharma, Mukesh Kumar, Manish Pandey, Rilee Rossouw, Abishek Porel
