Srikkanth on Pant’s Fitness Ahead of WC 2023: The excitement for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 starts to move in an uptrend right after the ICC announced the schedule on June 27.
With less than 100 days for the “Flagship event”, the squad prediction for the teams has begun on social media. That too the expectation for the Indian cricket team is very high and many star players start to sweat out hard in the gym to make their comeback from their injuries.
Many Indian star players have been sidelined for a while owing to their different injuries. Though team India holds the 3rd spot in the ICC men’s ODI Team ranking, they still need to re-examine their squad strength for a mega event like World Cup.
In the last 5 ODI series, India managed to win just 2 games.
- India in New Zealand ODI Series(2022/23) – New Zealand: 1-0 (3)
- India in Bangladesh ODI Series(2022/23) – Bangladesh: 2-1 (3)
- Sri Lanka in India ODI Series(2022/23) – India: 3-0 (3)
- New Zealand in India ODI Series(2022/23) – India: 3-0 (3)
- Australia in India ODI Series(2022/23) – Australia: 2-1 (3)
India was without some of their prime players during these events and struggled to maintain consistency in the game.
Srikkanth on Pant’s Fitness Ahead of WC 2023
With home conditions in their favour, India are widely being considered to be one of the main contenders for the title but former India opener Krishnamachari Srikkanth believes that the absence of wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant can be a major factor.
A day ahead of new year’s Eve, Indian cricketer, Rishabh Pant met with a car accident and was admitted to the hospital on December 30, 2022. 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.
“We don’t know the real truth about Rishabh Pant. Because Rishabh Pant, if he was playing, I would have straightaway said that India are the real favourites for the World Cup. But I think obviously, Rishabh Pant’s fitness is questionable. Nobody knows how fit will he be before the World Cup. I doubt it. Many people doubt if he will play the 2023 World Cup. Otherwise, the Rishabh Pant factor would have been very crucial,” Srikkanth told IT.
Following his injuries, Pant missed out on all international games played from 2023 and was even ruled out of the IPL 2023 season.
The other cricketer currently recuperating from injury is batter KL Rahul and Srikkanth said that he expects Rahul to return to the side and provide solidity to the middle order.
“So I believe guys like KL Rahul should be back in the middle order. KL Rahul has been fantastic. We have Rohit Sharma opening with Shubman Gill. Then we have Virat Kohli, who has been fantastic in this format and he has been in form. I believe India has got the capabilities of winning the World Cup,” Srikkanth said.
As per India World Cup 2023 schedule, the host will play their first game of the tournament against Australia on October 8 in Chidambaram, Chennai,
