India’s assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate has given a major update on Rishabh Pant’s fitness. He stated that a final decision on Pant’s availability will be taken before the upcoming match in Manchester. Rishabh Pant is currently not fully fit and is recovering from a finger injury. During the Lord’s Test, Pant injured his hand while trying to catch a delivery from fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah behind the stumps. Despite the injury, he scored 74 runs in the first innings and 9 runs in the second.
The wicketkeeper-batsman, still recovering from the finger injury, did not train on Thursday but travelled with the team to Beckenham. It is hoped that he will be fully fit for the Manchester Test. Assistant coach Ten Doeschate said, “He batted through a lot of pain in the third Test, and we don’t want to be in a situation again where we have to change the wicketkeeper in the middle of an innings. He rested today. We are just trying to give him as much recovery time as possible and hope that he’ll be ready for the first training session in Manchester. Keeping wickets will definitely be the last step in this recovery process.”
During England’s first innings, in the 34th over, Pant was injured while attempting to catch a leg-side delivery from Bumrah, which hit his finger. He was in visible pain and the physio had to come onto the field, causing a short interruption in play. Though he completed the over, he couldn’t continue wicketkeeping. Dhruv Jurel took over the wicketkeeping duties for the remainder of the match. Rishabh Pant is currently the second-highest run-scorer in the series, having scored 425 runs in six innings at an impressive average of 70.83.