Ahead of the IPL 2023, Delhi Capitals will miss Rishabh Pant who is still recuperating from serious injuries he sustained during a car crash last year while going to home. Delhi’s head coach Ricky Ponting has said that it will be difficult for the team to take part in the league without the service of their star batter and skipper Rishabh Pant.
“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,” Ponting said on Friday.
“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 a number of ways (to zero in on playing lineup)”, he added.
Since Pant is injured, David Warner has been named the skipper of Delhi Capitals for the IPL 2023. India’s allrounder Axar Patel has been named his deputy for the season. Warner was the leading run-scorer for the Capitals’ in the last season of IPL, getting 432 runs at an average of 48 and a wholesome strike rate of 150.52 with the help of five half-centuries.
Earlier, Capitals roped in Warner back in the 2022 mega auction after he was ignored by Sunrisers Hyderabad. Capitals took him in for Rs 6.25 crore. Delhi Capitals will kickstart their campaign by playing against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow on April 1.