The much-anticipated Border-Gavaskar Trophy is slated to begin on February 9 in Nagpur, and India’s hero from the last edition, Rishabh Pant, will miss the series due to injuries sustained in a serious vehicle accident on December 30, 2022.
The cricketer is now being treated at Mumbai’s Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital after undergoing various procedures. As previously reported, the southpaw might lose up to 18 months of cricket, ruling him out of the forthcoming ODI World Cup and T20 World Cup next year.
Meanwhile, Pant’s Delhi Capitals colleague Marcus Stoinis has sent an emotional message for the cricketer, wishing him a speedy recovery and stating that they would miss seeing Pant in the forthcoming series.
“One guy clearly missed this season greatly and it is Rishabh Pant he is sadly not with the club. “I hope he recovers quickly and returns to the field,” Stoinis remarked, according to the Hindustan Times.
Despite being a Test cricket superpower, Australia has recently struggled to take the Border-Gavaskar Trophy away from India. Even though Stonis is no longer a member of Australia’s Test squad, he has emphasised that the team does not want to surrender the trophy this time.
Though the 33-year-old admits that overcoming India at home would be challenging, he feels that the Australian squad is strong enough to win.
“We don’t want to lose the trophy this time. The squad never likes to lose, but this may be the third time in a row, and we don’t want to give up this year. Our team is extremely powerful, and beating India on their home turf would be tough because to the spin courses.”
“India has several specialist bowlers, like as R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, who can bowl very well, but we are also bringing some specialist spinners, so anticipate a strong rivalry this time,” the all-rounder continued.
