Who Will Replace Rishabh Pant in World Cup 2023: Many Indian cricket fans were left heartbroken right after Indian wicket-keeper batter Rishabh Pant met with a near-fatal car accident on December 30, 2022.
Who Will Replace Rishabh Pant in World Cup 2023
Rishabh Pant’s injuries made him leave cricket for an extended period. Pant missed many Indian international series including Border Gavaskar Trophy 2023, and Indian Premier League 2023 and also will miss the much-awaited ICC World Cup 2023.
The ICC Men’s World Cup 2023 is scheduled to be hosted by India from 5 October to 19 November 2023.
Pant, who was part of the Indian team in the 2019 World Cup is likely to miss the 2023 edition. In his absence, India will need another wicketkeeper-batter and according to Australian cricketer Ricky Ponting, KL Rahul and Ishan Kishan are likely candidates to fill in for Pant.
It is worth mentioning, Ishan Kishan bagged a double century in the 3rd ODI of Bangladesh vs India at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram on December 10, 2022.
In the absence of Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul led the Indian team where Ishan Kishan opened the inning alongside Dhawan and scored a “record-breaking” double hundred.
Though this milestone put Kishan in the front run, KL Rahul’s ODI numbers and experience will definitely give him a lead. But the duo’s performances in the upcoming matches will definitely play a crucial role in their World Cup position.
“Look, I do think they’ll stick with him. I think in their World Cup squad, KL will definitely be there,” Ponting said in an interview with Sanjana Ganesan on ICC Review.
“I think Ishan Kishan should definitely be there as well to give another left-handed batting option because, if you look back to game three, they promoted Axar and Jadeja ahead of Surya because of Ashton Agar and the balls spinning away from the right-handers”.
With Rishabh not being there now, they might think of maybe wanting to play a specialist left-handed batter in the middle order, which I think would have to be Ishan Kishan in some role, whether that’s at No. 4 or No. 5. Just to negate teams that have left-arm off-spin because when you look at the spinners around the world now, there are very few right-arm off-spinners in ODIs and T20Is.
“You need to have left-handers through your middle order. Most sides will have left-arm off-spin and right-arm leg spin, and if you’ve only got right-handers through the middle order, it’s a lot harder for those guys to play it. So, I think they’ll go into that World Cup with the two keepers in their squad, and they’ll make the decision on what they need as far as their batting is concerned,” he added.
England are the defending champions, having won the previous edition in 2019 having defeated New Zealand by boundary count after the super over was tied.
