New Delhi: Dr. Dinshaw Pardiwala, a renowned Mumbai-based orthopaedic surgeon, who treated Rishabh Pant after his horrific car accident in December, 2022, has warned the Indian cricketer about his somersault celebration, calling it ‘unnecessary’. Pardiwala oversaw Pant’s surgeries and also supervised his recovery after the car crash.
Pant’s car crashed into a divider when he was driving from Delhi to his home in Roorkee, Uttarakhand, in December 2022. The car burst into flames, following the horrific crash, but Pant miraculously survived. He was saved by a few passersby and was initially admitted to a hospital in Dehradun for treatment.
The Indian cricketer was later lifted to Mumbai and admitted to the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani hospital in Andheri, where Pardiwala, a leading sports surgeon, looked after his treatment. Pant sustained multiple injuries after the accident and underwent ligament reconstruction surgery on his right knee.
It took him over a year to recover completely, but the wicket-keeper batter is back to his best once again in Test cricket for India. Pant recently smashed twin centuries in the first Test against England at Headingley in Leeds and did a somersault celebration, which he also pulled off after scoring a century for Lucknow Super Giants in their final game of the IPL 2025 season.
Opening up on his somersault celebration, which is not easy to pull off while wearing pads on a cricket pitch, Pardiwala acknowledged Pant’s athleticism, calling the celebration a ‘perfected’ move, but he ultimately deemed it ‘unnecessary’ as it can create problems for the wicket-keeper batter.
“Rishabh trained as a gymnast – and so although he looks large, he is quite agile, and he does have a lot of flexibility,” Pardiwala told The Telegraph.
“And that’s why he’s been doing those somersaults of late. It’s a well-practised and perfected move – unnecessary though,” he added.
Rishabh Pant was extremely lucky to be alive: Dr. Dinshaw Pardiwala
Dr. Pardiwala said Pant was extremely lucky to survive the dangerous car accident, as he opened up on the cricketer’s condition when he first arrived for treatment at the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani hospital in Mumbai. Pardiwala revealed Pant’s right knee was dislocated and he had also injured his right ankl,e while there were multiple injuries across his body. The cricketer also suffered heavy skin loss while escaping his burning car.
“Rishabh Pant was extremely lucky to be alive – extremely lucky. When he first came in, he had a dislocated right knee. He also had an injury to his right ankle, lots of other minor injuries all over. He had a lot of skin loss, so his entire skin from the nape of the neck down to his knees was completely scraped off in the process of that accident,” Pardiwala told The Telegraph.
Not many believed Pant would recover in such a short period. However, the cricketer’s will to make a comeback and his determination to play again helped him recover in just over a year. Pant made his comeback to competitive cricket in the IPL 2024 last year and was part of India’s victorious T20 World Cup 2024 squad.
There has been no looking back for the swashbuckling left-hander ever since as he continues to perform exceptionally well for India and shatter records in Test cricket.