India A skipper Shubman Gill took a blinder catch to dismiss India B batter Rishabh Pant to cut short his red-ball comeback. On September 5, Pant returned to the longest format as India B locked horns with India A in the first round of Duleep Trophy 2024. This was the first time Pant donned whites since his fatal accident in December 2022. The match that took place at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru saw Shubman Gill winning the toss and inviting the rivals to put the score on board first.
India B, led by Abhimanyu Easwaran, had an unpleasant start as the skipper was the first one to depart at 13 runs off 42 balls. Yashasvi Jaiswal, India’s rising batting star was expected to come up with a solid innings, but even he couldn’t live up to expectations. Jaiswal walked back to the pavilion after a score of 30 runs off 49 balls. Sarfaraz Khan was dismissed for nine runs off an Avesh Khan delivery, following which Pant made his highly-anticipated comeback.
Shubman Gill takes blinder to dismiss Rishabh Pant on red-ball comeback
Rishabh Pant who was playing his first red-ball game after his accident in December 2022, was expecting to mark the special day with a memorable innings. He opened his account with a boundary off the first delivery he faced. However, as luck would have it, his stay on the crease came to an end after just 10 balls, owing to a brilliant catch taken by rival skipper Shubman Gill.
On the second ball of the 36th over bowled by Akash Deep, Pant mistimed his flick shot and produced a thick top edge which was caught by Gill. The last time Pant played a red-ball match was in 2022, where he scored 93 runs in an innings against Bangladesh in Mirpur.