…Rishabh Pant made his first official appearance for Team India since a terrible road accident in December 2022, and he had a great game with the bat as his side comfortably beat Ireland to launch their T20 World Cup campaign.
Playing at No.3 after India chose to send Rohit Sharma as captain Virat Kohli’s new opening partner, Pant blasted an unbeaten 36 off 26 balls on the challenging surface of the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York.
India’s bowling was led by Hardik Pandya who bagged three wickets for twenty seven runs only from sixteen overs to dismiss Ireland cheaply while Rohit Sharma reached half century having scored fifty two runs out of thirty seven balls guiding India to victory with only 12.2 over and eight wickets in hand.
Jasprit Bumrah was named ‘Man of The Match’ for taking two wickets against six runs. Arshdeep Singh got two wickets for thirty-five runs while Mohammed Siraj and Axar Patel each took one wicket.
Rohit got hit on his arm by Joshua Little’s delivery forcing him to retire hurt but PANT stepped-up from there and finished it off himself. Kohli wanted only 1 run, Suryakumar Yadav could not stand for more than 2 runs.
After that win, Pant thanked God for giving him another opportunity to play international cricket.
“Thankyou God for giving me Faith and Belief,” posted the Indian keeper-batsman on social media adding some images from India’s win against Ireland.
Pant marked his return with the Bangladesh warm-up game but this World Cup opener against Ireland is his first international match since undergoing surgery after being involved in an accident.
Pant returned to competitive cricket through Delhi Capitals in IPL season 2024.
Next up for India will be Pakistan their arch-rivals whom they face on June 9th for their second group A match of T20 world cup at the same ground in New York.
In addition to Ireland and Pakistan, USA and Canada are co-hosts that complete India’s group.
