“Jittery, nervous, excited – all of it,” Pant described his emotional state on the eve of his first IPL match in two years, having sat out the 2023 season. “However on the identical time, simply blissful with the ability to come again to skilled cricket. I am simply trying ahead to enjoying my first sport tomorrow.”
Pant felt he did that as a result of he needed to practise as a lot as potential and provides himself “the perfect likelihood to turn out to be a greater cricketer”.
Ponting described Pant because the “heartbeat” of the crew. “There is not any doubt final yr we missed our captain, we missed one of the perfect gamers on this planet,” he mentioned. “Simply his perspective, his smile, the way in which he goes about his cricket, he is a winner. He needs to win video games.
“He needs to do the perfect he can for the crew on a regular basis. And when you’ve that perspective coming again right into a crew, that is infectious. Everybody needs to be like Rishabh and play the way in which that he performs his cricket. He is our chief. He is the heartbeat of this franchise and having him again goes to make this crew loads higher and loads stronger.”
Ponting the coach is often a constructive and smiling particular person, however Pant’s return has obtained him tremendous excited for the brand new season as Capitals try and win the IPL for the primary time. “The truth that he’s again smiling places a smile on my face as nicely. Figuring out that I’ve obtained my captain again, figuring out that I’ve obtained one of the perfect gamers on this planet in all three codecs again in my crew, I am smiling, his crew-mates are all smiling.”
