Rishabh Pant suffered a horrific injury on Day 1 of the Manchester Test against England after he inside-edged a reverse sweep onto his foot off the bowling of Chris Woakes. The vice-captain of the Indian team was in immediate pain as the physio came charging out to attend to Pant. For minutes, he laid on the ground. The 27-year-old was unable to put any weight on his foot and eventually had to be taken off the field.
A golf cart-like ambulance was used to escort him out of the playing area. He received further treatment in the medical aid room at Old Trafford, but right before the close of play, the wicketkeeper-batter was taken to the hospital for scans. Pant was batting on 37 when the incident happened. He, along with Sai Sudharsan, were threatening to take the game away from England, but fate had different plans.
Pant has now been ruled out of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy after scans revealed a toe fracture. The wicketkeeper has been advised rest for six weeks.
Former England captain Michael Vaughan made a suggestion in the aftermath of this incident, saying teams should be allowed to have substitutes who can bat or bowl if any player suffers an injury like this. It is not fair to have a 10 vs 11 contest, especially when there are four days remaining.
However, former India wicketkeeper-batter Parthiv Patel is not in agreement, reminding that the rules have already been made with no need to tweak them.
{{/usCountry}}However, former India wicketkeeper-batter Parthiv Patel is not in agreement, reminding that the rules have already been made with no need to tweak them.
{{/usCountry}}"There are already quite a few grey areas that teams try to exploit. Like in T20 cricket, we've seen, you know, the concussion rule, and people try to take advantage. So, in an ongoing game, if someone gets injured, what do you do? So, I think it's only fair. At least, now the rule has changed so that a wicket-keeper can do wicket-keeping. Otherwise, it wasn't even there," said Parthiv, a JioHotstar expert, during a select media interaction on Thursday.
"Someone from the team would have had to keep wickets, but I'm okay with the rule. It's unfortunate that Rishabh got hit, but it is what it is. What can you do about it?"
This isn't the first time that Pant has gotten injured in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. In the previous Lord's Test, the Indian keeper received a blow to his hand after he tried to collect a Jasprit Bumrah delivery. He received treatment on his hand before going back to the dressing room. Pant didn't keep wicket for the rest of the game, with Dhruv Jurel coming in as a substitute wicketkeeper. He did score 74 in the first innings, but he was in visible pain in the second as he was forced to jam his hand and bat down after Jofra Archer peppered him with a barrage of yorkers.
"I don't think there is any question about KL keeping in this Test match. Because if Rishabh Pant is injured, the rule also allows Dhruv Jurel to keep. There is no debate about anything. If Dhruv Jurel will be keeping, it's fine. If Rishabh Pant is injured, nothing can be done," added the 40-year-old.
'Abhimanyu Easwaran doing everything he can'
While all the chatter is about Karun Nair and Sai Sudharsan, a certain Abhimanyu Easwaran is also in the fold. He has been part of India's Test squad for several series now but is yet to receive an opportunity. Easwaran has piled up the runs in the Ranji Trophy. However, somehow or other, every team management – be it Ravi Shastri and Virat Kohli, Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma, or now Shubman Gill and Gautam Gambhir – has consistently been overlooked. Parthiv believes Easwaran is doing everything that is in his control but making it to the Test XI is a hard task.
"He is doing whatever he can do. I can clearly understand what he must be going through, or he must be thinking. Because he is doing whatever he has been asked to, whether it is India A, domestic cricket, or the Duleep trophy, he has been scoring runs. But unfortunately, at this point in time, India has settled openers in terms of KL Rahul and Yashaswi Jaiswal. And before this, it was the captain Rohit Sharma who was opening with Yashaswi Jaiswal," said Parthiv.
"So, there are certain situations where, you know, you can't do anything about it. So, it's like when Dhoni was keeping, everyone else was competing for the number 2 spot. Like whether it was Dinesh Karthik, me, or Wriddhiman Saha. But that's the situation. Wherever you get an opportunity, you try and score runs. And unfortunately, that's the situation right now for Abhimanyu. But at least, he is there as the third opener on every tour. And you just have to, I feel, just be ready. And hopefully, an opportunity comes."
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