India’s explosive batter Rishabh Pant is still recuperating from a major accident that he sustained during a car crash. But Pant has been updating constantly with his recovery process. But during the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Pant’s name came up end number of times. The left-hand batter has been one of India's most successful batters in the red ball format.
"Australia are lucky that Rishabh Pant is not there. He would have had a fair bit to say, not necessarily to the batters but certainly to his teammates. Rishabh if you are listening, we are missing you, get well soon," Gavaskar said.
Pant was travelling from Delhi to Uttarakhand when his car collided with a divider near Roorkee on December 30. Although his car caught fire during the car crash, Pant was able to escape in time with help of some locals. As per reports, the doctors treating Pant have predicted that the star player won't be able to make a comeback for over next few months, which means majority of 2023, including this year's IPL and ODI World Cup 2023 in India.
Talking about the match, Axar Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin built a crucial stand and helped India make a comeback as the hosts nearly matched Australia's first-innings 263.
Squads:
India: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer (injured and yet to recover), KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), R. Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Suryakumar Yadav.
Australia: Pat Cummins (capt), Ashton Agar, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green (injured), Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Lance Morris, Todd Murphy, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc (injured), Mitchell Swepson, David Warner.