Find solution to avoid hobbling pace frontline
Even if India win at Manchester, they need to ponder whether to play Bumrah in the fifth and final Test. This brings the attention to the BCCI Centre of Excellence, where contracted players report after injury. Last year, the BCCI introduced an Athlete Monitoring System, which the centre uses to monitor the skills and fitness of every player who attends camps. These reports are available to the state associations to monitor the athletes' readiness against the workload. Yet, the injuries keep coming. Perhaps it's time for the BCCI to reassess their mechanism for monitoring— the earlier it's done, the better.
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Indian Express
19 minutes ago
- Indian Express
How ‘Courageous Keeper' Rishabh Pant breached pain barrier, stood tall for his team
At lunch, almost half of the Indian team waited just outside the boundary rope to receive their hobbling teammate Rishabh Pant. Spinner Kuldeep Yadav took his helmet and bat, pacer Akash Deep the gloves, others were checking if he needed help to climb the dressing room stairs. Pant said no, walked gingerly, taking care not to put weight on his fractured right foot. After ten flights, at the landing, he stopped for a bit. That's when a young fan in the stands, waving a Tricolour, shouted, 'We love you, Rishabh.' Pant smiled, waved his hand and took ten more discomforting steps on the balcony where coach Gautam Gambhir and the team's most senior player Ravindra Jadeja gave him a hug. These seemed like scenes from a Bollywood sports biopic. Who writes Pant's scripts, Old Trafford wondered. Before lunch on Day 2, Pant had scored just two runs from seven balls. A day earlier, he had retired hurt on 37 in the final session. On Thursday, he eventually made 54 but fought for his team on one foot. He played 27 balls with a fractured toe. From an overnight 264 for four, India were eventually bowled out for 358. The dressing room knew the importance of Pant taking the field. If not for him, India wouldn't have reached this score, a challenging one on this difficult track. Less than 24 hours back, he was carted off the ground in a buggy after getting hit flush on the foot by a slower yorker from Chris Woakes. Scans on the toe showed it was a fracture. A BCCI press statement said Pant wouldn't keep wickets but 'would bat as per team requirement'. Struggling to reach 300 in the first innings, the team needed him. Through his innings, Pant looked in pain but didn't give up. He never has. Three years ago, he had met with a horrific car crash on the Delhi-Rourkee highway. When he was rescued from the mangled pile-up, injured beyond recognition, it was feared that he wouldn't survive. Pant too had said that he thought his 'time in this world was over'. His self-belief and incredibly high pain threshold would give him a 'second life', and also a second wind to his career. On this England Test tour, Pant has been the second highest run-scorer with two hundreds and has proved to be the batsman the rivals dread. Several times in this series, he has unsettled the opposition with his play. The team was aware of Pant's importance. In a late night meeting Thursday, the BCCI medical team said the wicket-keeper would need six weeks of rest. But could he just bat for this Test with the help of pain-killers, they were asked. 'He could, if need be,' was the answer. Pant didn't travel to the stadium this morning on the team bus. Around the time the big batting hope Jadeja was out, a car brought Pant to the ground. When the giant screen showed him in whites, a cheer rose around the stadium. And once he entered the field, the entire Old Trafford was on its feet. There was rhythmic, typically English, clapping as Pant took a while to walk to the central square. He frustrated the English bowlers by taking them on. They tried to bowl him short balls but that didn't bother Pant. After that, Stokes aimed at his injured leg and bowled a swinging yorker. The ball hit low on the pad, just above the fractured part of the foot. Pant clenched his teeth, shut his eyes and dragged his feet towards square leg. After the brief walk, he came back again to bat. Pain and Stokes go back a long way. But he wasn't going to get intimidated. Very soon, he hit a slower one from Jofra Archer out of the ground for a six and after that played an exquisite cover drive — easily the stroke of the morning. Stokes bowled a ball wide of the crease, thinking Pant wouldn't move his feet and struggle to middle it. Pant leaned into it and pushed it — the ball raced across the boundary line. On BBC's Test Match Special, they were remembering the 1984 Headingley Test where West Indian great Malcolm Marshall, playing with a double fracture, got seven wickets and batted bravely. Former India wicketkeeper Deep Dasgupta recalled watching from the dressing room, spin legend Anil Kumble bowl with a broken jaw during the 2002 tour of the West Indies. Pant at Old Trafford was joining the greats of the game who didn't allow pain to stop them from doing their bit for the team cause. The myth of the 'Courageous Keeper' grows.
Hans India
an hour ago
- Hans India
N Jagadeesan most likely to be called up for fifth Test against England as Pant's replacement
New Delhi: Wicketkeeper-batter N Jagadeesan is most likely to be given a maiden call-up to the Indian Test team for the fifth Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy game against England as a replacement for the injured Rishabh Pant. An official announcement from the BCCI is expected to come soon. Sources have told IANS that Jagadeesan is on his way to Chennai from his hometown Coimbatore to initiate the visa process and join the Indian Test squad in England at the earliest. IANS also understands that left-handed wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan, who recently had a county championship stint with Nottinghamshire, was sounded out to join the team. It is understood that Kishan is nursing a left ankle injury and will not be fit enough to play in time for the Test starting on July 31 at The Oval. There was also a school of thought to call up KS Bharat, who is currently in England for a stint with Dulwich CC for the 2025 Surrey Championship campaign and can come to The Oval in quick time. But it is understood that Bharat, who played seven Tests for India, is completely ruled out of being back in contention to the red-ball team. There's also another back-up Indian wicketkeeper in KL Rahul, but whether that option was explored by the selection committee and Indian team management, it's yet to be known. In 52 first-class matches, Jagadeesan has scored 3,373 runs while hitting 10 centuries and 14 fifties at an average of 47.50. He has been one of the consistent run-makers for Tamil Nadu in domestic cricket. In the last Ranji Trophy season, Jagadeesan amassed 674 runs in eight matches at an average of 56.16, including two hundreds and five fifties. Jagadeesan's likely call-up comes after Pant's injury happened in the 68th over of India's innings on day one's play, when he attempted a premeditated reverse sweep off seam bowling all-rounder Chris Woakes. But the ball hit his right boot after taking an inside edge. With the swelling on top of the foot looking a table tennis ball and some blood coming out as well, Pant was unable to put any weight on his injured foot. Eventually, an ambulance buggy resembling a golf cart took a grimacing Pant off the field, as he retired hurt on 37 off 48 balls, after having a partnership worth 72 runs with B. Sai Sudharsan. Scans later revealed that Pant has sustained a fracture on the fifth metatarsal of his right foot, with the recovery period being of minimum six weeks, which also rules him out of the fifth Test against England. For day two's play, Pant came to the ground with a moonboot, but came out to bat for India as per the team's requirements, said a BCCI statement, which also declared Dhruv Jurel to be on keeper duties for the Manchester Test. Pant astonished everyone by coming out to bat and hit a brave 54 off 75 balls – a knock which will be talked for ages to come. Pant, who retired hurt on 37 after the painful blow to the foot on day one, added 17 more runs to India's total and that meant the visitors' managed to cross 350-run mark. With Pant's injury, Jurel could be in the starting eleven for the fifth and final game of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy series Test after being on India 'A' squad for the two tour games against England Lions.
India Today
an hour ago
- India Today
N Jagadeesan to be added to India squad as cover for injured Rishabh Pant
Rishabh Pant was on Thursday ruled out of wicket-keeping duties in the ongoing fourth Test against England after fracturing his toe, but he came out to bat, even as Tamil Nadu stumper N Jagadeesan got ready to join the Indian team as cover for the injured BCCI stated that Pant is "available" in the role of a batter as per team requirements during the crunch game at Old Pant, who sustained an injury to his right foot on Day 1 of the Manchester Test, will not be performing wicket-keeping duties for the remainder of the match. Dhruv Jurel will assume the role of wicket-keeper," the BCCI posted on X."Despite his injury, Rishabh Pant has joined the team on Day 2 and will be available to bat as per team requirements," it added. This was after early inputs from the Board indicated that Pant had been ruled out of the series and Ishan Kishan would be called in as cover for him. However, it later emerged that Jagadeesan is travelling to the UK to join the squad as a replacement for the injured Pant ahead of the fifth is expected to fill in as wicketkeeper-batter in the absence of Pant, who received a standing ovation from the crowd at Old Trafford after he walked out to bat with a fractured comes out to bat for India on Day 2Pant came out to bat after the fall of Shardul Thakur's wicket with India at 314/6 on the overcast day. The Indian batter got a standing ovation from the crowd and went on to score 54 as India posted 358 in the first innings. With his ability to change the momentum with audacious stroke-play, Pant is a game-changer for India. After undergoing additional scans, Pant arrived at the stadium wearing a moon boot (a protective orthopaedic boot) to support his injured foot."His metatarsal bones (a group of five long bones located between the ankle and toe) seem to be shattered. It doesn't look good at all," a BCCI source told severity of the injury was apparent given the blood that was seen seeping off Pant's right foot on Wednesday. The affected area had considerable swelling as well. - EndsTune InMust Watch
