Rishabh Pant could lead Delhi Capitals without keeping wickets – Reports

Rishabh Pant is likely to play as a specialist batter in the upcoming IPL 2024. The latest reports have made a huge claim on the star player’s role in Delhi Capitals in the 17th edition of the IPL. It has been reported that Pant might lead DC and not keep the wickets. It might be a huge decision for the runner-ups of IPL 2020. 

Ricky Ponting recently revealed that Pant has been recovering well towards fitness. The DC coach claimed that Pant would be ready to play in the IPL 2024. However, Punter was unsure of the capacity in which the star player would be available. The sources now claim that Pant would play as a pure batter and someone else would take up the responsibility of keeping the wickets. 

Pant has not been in action for more than 14 months now. In December 2022, the star player suffered an unfortunate accident while travelling from Delhi to Haridwar. Since then, Rishabh has been working hard to become fit. He is doing the hard yards in the gym and following the advice of the doctors. One such advice would be to not go hard on keeping the wickets. 

Potential wicketkeepers of Delhi Capitals

The work behind the stumps is a specialist job in cricket. Not many can do it without being fit and free to move. Given the accident of Pant, he can’t be agile enough to dive either way whenever necessary. Hence, DC might be looking to play him as a pure batter. He could still lead the sides, while others like Abhishek Porel or Shai Hope could keep wickets. 

Many players in the DC squad can keep wickets. Kumar Kushagra, Tristan Stubbs, Shai Hope, Abhishek Porel, and Ricky Bhui can keep wickets for DC. Porel kept the wickets for DC in the absence of Pant in the IPL 2023. Hope has been keeping wickets for the West Indies over the years. Stubbs kept wickets for Sunrisers Eastern Cape in their title-winning campaign in SA20.