The 28-year-old faced a fresh injury setback on the eve of the game as he was hit just above his waist while batting against throwdown specialists. As soon as Pant was spotted grimacing in pain, he was attended to by the Indian team’s support staff and other team members, including head coach Gautam Gambhir.
According to a report in Cricbuzz, the injury has turned out to be serious, and it’s enough to keep him out of the series against New Zealand. The wicketkeeper is set to leave the Indian camp on Sunday, the scheduled date for the first ODI between India and New Zealand in Vadodara.
Pant was the second-choice wicket-keeper in the squad, and hence, there is no immediate need for a replacement. However, the report states that the selectors are likely to draft Ishan Kishan into the squad.
As of now, it’s not known what the exact nature of Pant’s injury is, but several reports state that he was hit by a delivery from a sidearm specialist. It’s unlikely that the swashbuckling batter consulted any specialist in Vadodara and nor did he undergo scans.
Pant’s career has been hampered by injuries of late. His flourishing career first hit a major roadblock in 2022 after he met with a horrific car accident. This led to a long absence from international cricket and the IPL. Last year, he faced another setback after being hit on the toe while trying to play a reverse sweep off the bowling of Chris Woakes. This led to him missing the fifth and final Test against England, as well as the two Tests against the West Indies.
Pant picked despite contrary reports
Before the squad selection for the New Zealand ODIs, there were numerous reports stating that Pant would be dropped and his name wouldn’t be included in the series against the Black Caps.
However, this wasn’t to be the case as the selectors named Pant in the squad. The wicketkeeper hasn’t played an ODI for a while, and his last game was in August 2024 against Sri Lanka.
Pant has played 31 ODIs so far, scoring 871 runs at an average of 33.50 and a strike rate of 106.21. He has only one century to his name in the format, and it came against England in the UK.
India’s updated squad for the series against New Zealand: Shubman Gill (captain), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul (wicketkeeper), Shreyas Iyer (vice-captain), Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd Siraj, Harshit Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Kuldeep Yadav, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Arshdeep Singh, Yashasvi Jaiswal.