IPL 2024: DC coach Ricky Ponting drops major update on Rishabh Pant's fitness and availability for upcoming IPL, says 'if he's not entirely fit...'

Delhi Capitals (DC) captain Rishabh Pant is racing against time to attain full match fitness ahead of the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Pant, who missed the entirety of the last season of the IPL, has been relentlessly working on his fitness, batting and wicket-keeping in the National Cricket Academy (NCA). As the IPL season draws near, DC coach Ricky Ponting provided another major update on Pant's progress.

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Ponting asserted that Pant has played a few practice matches and the signs were encouraging. The DC coach also confirmed that Pant also kept wickets in one of those matches while he also played the role of a fielder in other matches.

"He's actually played some practice matches over the last couple of weeks, which has been really encouraging for us," Ponting said while speaking on the ICC Review.

"I know he's worked incredibly hard on his body and his fitness to get back to the level that he's at now. He's kept in one of those games, he's fielded in these games and the batting hasn't seemingly been an issue for him so far," he added.

What if Pant is not fully fit?

In case Pant fails to attain the optimum level of fitness and his full-time availability remains in limbo then Ponting affirmed that the franchise will have some tough decisions to make, probably pertaining to the captaincy.

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"It's a big decision we'll have to make because if he is fit, you'd think he'd step straight back into that captaincy role," Ponting continued

"If he's not entirely fit and we have to use him in a slightly different role, then we've got some decisions to make there," he added.

Pat receives clearance certificate from NCA

The Sports Tak on March 10 (Sunday) reported that Rishabh Pant has received the match-ready fitness certificate from the medical team at the NCA. Earlier reports claimed that Pant was yet to attain the clearance from the medical team. 

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