Soon after Rishabh Pant checked into the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru in the summer of 2023, former India and Mumbai legspinner Sairaj Bahutule went to meet him. Pant's wounds from the car crash he was in the previous December were still fresh. He was barely walking, still on crutches after undergoing multiple surgeries to fix various ligaments in his right knee.
Bahutule had a reason - almost a duty, he felt - to talk to Pant. On July 28, 1990, Bahutule, then 17 years old, was in the back seat of a Maruti Gypsy with three friends when it rammed into a stationary bus on Mumbai's Marine Drive. Vivek Singh, son of Indian singers Jagjit and Chitra Singh, was behind the wheel and did not make it. Bahutule had multiple fractures including a badly damaged elbow and a broken femur bone in his right leg, needing a steel rod fixed in the leg for a year. But he would go on to make his way back with the support of family and friends, excelling enough as a cricketer to play for India.
"He had just come to NCA and was in the medical room. I walked up to him, hugged him and spoke for short time," Bahutule, who is a senior coach at the NCA, says. "I just opened up to him about what I had been through and just told him that there is a purpose to it. It is important to remember there's a reason for what you've been through. You have to take it up in a way where you see it as you only can get better from there, and things [the challenges] can work in your favour."
Bahutule told Pant he had gone from "crutches and a rod in my leg to playing cricket for India", so it was important to stay strong and resilient. He shared another key learning before leaving Pant. "When you go through a traumatic incident like he did, you go through a lot of things physically and mentally, you have a lot of things in your mind - why did this happen? What is the reason? Why me? You play the victim's card for some time. But after support from your parents and support from your friends, you realise there is a higher purpose for us to be alive."
Pant, Bahutule recollects, listened quietly. At 25, with a broken leg and a blossoming career in danger of breaking apart, Pant would have been crushed on the inside. But Bahutule was - and remains - convinced Pant's life would take a positive turn. "He's going to be a totally different player: in the sense, Rishabh's going to be much better than what he was [before the accident]. He will now realise the importance of being alive."
Bahutule laughs after that last line.
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If you have watched Pant in numerous interviews recently, ever since it became clear he was returning to cricket starting with IPL 2024, returning to lead Delhi Capitals, he has echoed Bahutule's sentiment: gratitude at being alive.
Through sheer willpower, lots of pain, a little bit of scolding for having picked up a bat last August 15 and a big dose of dedication, Pant reconstructed not just his knee, but also his aims. Of course, cricket, beyond family, remains the love his life. But recovering from the injury also taught him to enjoy life beyond cricket.
Through numerous social media posts over the past year he has showcased his various gains: experiencing joy at brushing his teeth, tossing his crutches away to walk independently, steadily starting to jog, run, lift weights, bat and keep wicket, wander around the neighbourhood in Bengaluru, ride a bicycle, even play marbles with children.
"I just want to be in the moment at this time. There are no words to describe that feeling when you are out for one-and-a-half years and [you are not doing] the thing you love the most in the world. There are not enough words to describe that feeling when I entered the field [again for the first time]." Rishabh Pant on his emotions around his comeback
At a media briefing in Mullanpur on Thursday, before his first competitive match in 453 days, Pant looks back on some of that, explaining how he spontaneously decided to play marbles, squatting alongside the kids on a dusty lane one afternoon. "I was just cycling around where I was staying in Bangalore, so I felt like I could play with these kids. Toh mera mann kar raha tha, yaar [I just had this urge]. I felt like I want to enjoy it because generally what happens when you start playing at the top level, you try to think too much, you have so much restrictions, but at the same time you have to enjoy the moment also. So that's what I tried to do. I was in the moment, felt like doing it and I just did it and I'm happy with it."
Hours away from his first competitive match since all that, Pant admits he is jittery, nervous, excited. "But nerves are always good," Ricky Ponting, Capitals' head coach, says, sitting by Pant's side. "I've always said that nerves are good because nerves mean that it means something to you. The day that you are not nervous is the day you shouldn't be playing cricket anymore. Don't be surprised if something special happens tomorrow."
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Glimpses of what this something special could be are had during an exhaustive batting session on Friday afternoon. Among the several hits Pant deposits over the ropes - some deep into the lower tier of this freshly minted stadium - one stands out. A one-handed loft that sails high over long-on - quite similar to a stroke he played in IPL 2021. It is a signature Pant shot, where he picks the length, extends his arms and uses powerful wrists. It is a piece of magic.
There have been question marks over whether Pant will be ginger while stretching his leg, having had his anterior, posteriors and median knee ligaments reconstructed. If he has anxiety on this account, there is none on display at training. Having batted for nearly two hours, Pant walks out of the nets swiftly and falls flat, just for a moment, on his back, catching his breath, before quickly unstrapping the batting pads. You can see his right leg strapped with a special knee brace, which stretches from the upper thigh to the calf. There's a bit of exhaustion, yes, but Pant soon puts on braces on both hands and his keeping gloves, and has a 20-minute session with Capitals' fielding coach Biju George.
Pant's hands are stable, his leg movements seem fine. He is not squatting though. Just as a doubt takes shape in your mind, Pant dives to his right to pick up a one-handed beauty an inch above the top of the grass of this luscious outfield, triggering a squeal of delight from George and Co.
In a revealing chat with Star Sports recently, Pant has spoken about how the only cricket he watched properly while recovering was the 2023 Ashes - because it was fun. "Because England have started playing in a certain fashion, [in a way] I am used to [playing too]. Rohit [Sharma] bhai says we will also play 'Rish-ball'. He says you play that anyway, but we will get others also to follow you," Pant had said with a chuckle during that chat.
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Pant's cricket has always radiated joy. And he has not lost that vibe. For Ponting, Pant is the "heartbeat" of Capitals. On Friday, even from afar, you can see Pant's pulsing energy, his keenness to push himself. As Ponting says, Pant is ready.
As I ask Pant to try and define his emotions at this time - are there goosebumps, tears of joy even as he readies to play? - Ponting listens intently. He has had his own emotions to deal with, following Pant's recovery process. "We caught up a couple of times during the IPL last year," Ponting says. "At that stage he was on crutches and could hardly walk. During the [ODI] World Cup [in October-November], I saw him again at a player camp in Calcutta. He was then getting around a lot better, walking a lot freer, getting to the point where he could almost start jogging. And then the next time I saw him was at the start of the camp here in in Vizag."
"Look at him," Ponting says, looking to his left. "He's ready to go."
Ponting says Pant's is "an amazing story", which fans of Capitals and Indian cricket should be "really proud of". "He has worked extremely hard. There were a lot of doubters out there that thought he wouldn't play again. I know in his own heart and mind, he never had those doubts at all. It was just a matter of time till he came back and, if you look at the way that he's presented himself for this IPL, you can see how much it means to him. He's here. He's 100% ready to go. And we are all excited to see what he brings."
Pant beams at Ponting's acknowledgement of his hard work. Then he says: "I just want to be in the moment at this time. There are no words to describe that feeling when you are out for one-and-a-half years or so and [you are not doing] the thing you love the most in the world. There are not enough words to describe that feeling when I entered the field [again for the first time]. I would say even in the practice matches at the NCA… every time now I take the field, it's a different feeling for me. I just love the game more and more, I would say."
On Saturday, in Mullanpur, Pant will start a new chapter of his life. Former Australia captain Lisa Sthalekar recently predicted Pant will walk out to a thunderous welcome, the roar of which will be much louder than those that usually greet MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli. Ironically, it was 45 minutes down the road in Mohali, in a bilateral T20 series in 2019, that Pant struggled with his glovework and the crowd ridiculed him with chants of "Dhoni, Dhoni, Dhoni". Pant later spoke about the deep hurt that caused him. He was 22 years old at the time. The same chants were then heard at other venues, too, forcing Rohit and Kohli to publicly say Pant should be left alone. Pant was hurt, but he didn't let the episode break him.
Five years on, he has survived something much, much more serious, and he's ready to move forward once again. Get ready for Rish-ball.