Delhi Capitals (DC) will be without their star player Rishabh Pant as he is still recovering from injuries after surviving horrific car accident on December 30 morning last year. DC asked their fans to predict their playing XI before their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 campaign opener against KL Rahul’s Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at Ekana Stadium, Lucknow on April 1.
Rishabh Pant wrote in reply to DC’s tweet: 'I am 13 th player coz of impact rule otherwise would have been 12 th man'.
Meanwhile, DC have named Abhishek Porel as Pant’s replacement for the season. In the southpaw’s absence, David Warner will lead the side. Also, Sarfaraz Khan is likely to don the gloves as he has kept stumps in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2022.
DC coach Ricky Ponting last week came up with a unique plan to pay Pant a perfect tribute and make his participate in IPL.
"I only this morning, on the way to this gathering here, spoke to our manager about little ways that we might be able to actually include him without him actually physically being there, you know? His number might be on each of our playing shirts or his number might be on our caps, just so you know, for the players to understand that he's the heart and soul of the Delhi Capitals, he's a Delhi boy, he's our leader but he's not with us," Ponting said.
"So I want to be able to recognize as a team just how much we are thinking about him and how much we would love to have him part of his group again. So, we'll come up with some really nice way for the fans as well to be able to recognize how much he is a part of us and how much we are going to miss him this season," he stated.
"But as I've said, in an ideal world for me, and I said this couple of weeks ago, he's going to be sitting next to me in the dugout for every home game this season. Now, if that can work great, but if it can't, as I said, we'll find other ways to make sure he is a part of what we are doing," the former Australian captain added.
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