India wicketkeeper batter Rishabh Pant's somersault celebrations caught a lot of limelight. Many former cricketers, including Ravichandran Ashwin, urged the cricketer to not do his handspring celebration in Test because five days of cricket tend to take a toll on the body. Dr. Dinshaw Pardiwala, the Mumbai-based orthopaedic surgeon who treated Rishabh Pant after his near-fatal car accident in December 2022, reckons that his somersault celebrations are ‘perfected’ but ‘unnecessary’.
Pant's car crashed into a divider when he was driving back home in 2022. The cricketer suffered multiple injuries and underwent ligament reconstruction surgery on his right knee. He was initially admitted to Dehradun and later airlifted to Mumbai, where Pardiwala oversaw his surgeries at the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani hospital in Andheri West.
Pant was out of the cricketing action for more than a year and did rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy before finally making his comeback for Delhi Capitals in IPL 2024. He is currently Shubman Gill's deputy in the five-Test series of the Tendulkar-Anderson Trophy 2025. The 27-year-old star scored two centuries in his recent outing in the first Test against England at Headingley. He becomes the first wicketkeeper-batter to do so, and after his ton in the first innings, he celebrated with a somersault, just like he did for the Lucknow Super Giants in IPL 2025.
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“Rishabh trained as a gymnast – and so although he looks large, he is quite agile, and he does have a lot of flexibility," Pardiwala told The Telegraph. “And that’s why he’s been doing those somersaults of late. It’s a well-practised and perfected move – unnecessary though!," he added.
Pardiwala further stated that Pant is extremely lucky to be alive and he is a much more mature human being after surviving the accident.
“He recognises the fact that he was extremely lucky to be alive. He’s so motivated as a cricketer. If you knew the Rishabh before this happened, he’s a much more mature human being. He’s very philosophical now. He appreciates life and everything that goes around it. That typically happens to anyone who’s faced death in the face. Someone who’s had a near-death experience often gets life into perspective."
“Rishabh Pant was extremely lucky to be alive – extremely lucky. To be in an accident like this, where the car actually overturns and blows up, the risk of death is extremely high," Pardiwala said.
Earlier, in an interview on Sony Sports, Pant had explained the rationale behind his new celebration. The southpaw revealed that he had trained in gymnastics during school and that he had been doing somersaults since he was a child.
“I had three celebrations in mind. One was ‘let the bat do the talking.’ But then I thought, let me go with my own style. I’ve been doing somersaults since I was a kid. I trained in gymnastics during school,” Pant revealed.
Pant is currently in Birmingham for the second Test match against England which will take place from 2-6 July at Edgbaston Stadium.