The injuries ahead of the IPL 2023 have put the tournament under scrutiny. Many players have been deemed unfit to play and one of the big names among them is Rishabh Pant. The keeper-batter has been ruled out of the tournament due to a tragic accident he suffered in December 2022. The DC skipper is nursing couple of injuries and is likely to return to action after a few months. In his absence head coach, Ricky Ponting has come up with a unique idea to make the keeper batter part of the team during their campaign in IPL.
“Rishabh Pant is the heart & soul of Delhi Capitals, we are thinking of wearing his number on our shirts or caps,” says head coach Ricky Ponting
Delhi Capitals will be playing IPL for the first time since 2016 without Rishabh Pant. Rishabh Pant has been a significant contributor for the Delhi Capitals ever since he made his debut in the league. Since 2017, the keeper batter has scored over 300 runs in all the seasons and has won many games for his side with his brutal power hitting.
He captained the team in 2021 in the absence of Shreyas Iyer and also was a skipper last year and did a decent job but his team failed to make it into the playoffs last season. Pant’s absence will leave a massive void in DC’s camp as they will be without their best batter and skipper.
However, in his absence, the team has made David Warner as their skipper and Axar Patel as the vice-captain. All the members of the team have send their good wishes for the keeper batter and have been quite vocal about them missing Pant from the team this year.
Read Also: IPL 2023: Ranking All IPL 10 Teams Based on Their Potential set of All-
Head coach Ricky Ponting while addressing the media during the jersey launch of the Delhi Capitals for the IPL 2023 said that they want to have his number on their shirts or on caps as to make it clear that Pant is their leader even if he’s not with them. He elaborated:
“In an ideal world for me, he’d be sitting next to me in the dugout every match. But if that’s not possible, we’d like to make him part of the team in ways possible. We can have his number on our shirts or on caps. Just to make it clear that he’s our leader, even if he’s not with us.”
Predicted Delhi Capitals Playing 11 for the IPL 2023
There’s no doubt that David Warner and Prithvi Shaw will open the innings for the team in the IPL 2023. The middle order is likely to be handed by Mitchell Marsh, Manish Pandey and Sarfaraz Khan. Rovman Powell and Axar Patel are expected to be the two all-rounders whereas Kuldeep Yadav, Anrich Nortje, Khaleel Ahmed and Ishant Sharma are likely to be the bowlers.
Here’s the Predicted Delhi Capitals Playing 11 for the tournament.
David Warner (c)
Prithvi Shaw
Mitchell Marsh
Manish Pandey
Sarfaraz Khan (wk)
Rovman Powell
Axar Patel
Kuldeep Yadav
Anrich Nortje
Khaleel Ahmed
Ishant Sharma
Visit ICC CRICKET SCHEDULE for more cricketing updates.
