Rishabh Pant pauses for a couple of seconds as his left knee braces to carry his body weight up a set of stairs on the set of the shoot. It's a movement no one would usually notice except that the person we're describing is star cricketer Pant, who's been to hell and back since 30 December 2022 when he suffered a horrific accident near Roorkee on the Delhi-Dehradun expressway. The 26-year-old has undergone knee ligament surgery as well as plastic surgery after being left with facial injuries following the collision, which in his own words left him wondering if he would ever walk, forget playing cricket.
I'M DRAWN TOWARDS the moment. I look for traces of discomfort on his face even though I know that Pant has kept wickets for 253 overs during IPL 2024. Those couple of seconds in which he steadies himself before putting his weight on his left knee, simultaneously acknowledging the helping hand that one of the crew members extends, but does not accept, while crinkling his eyes in an endearing and naturally deflective manner, is what Pant 2.0 is all about.
He has been given a second lease on life, and cricket, and after enduring the toughest phase of his 26 years trying to get back onto the cricket, Pant is trying to enjoy every single aspect of a second chance.
I ask him what it is about cricket that he missed the most during those initial months of torture, lying in hospital beds on sleepless nights and screaming in pain at the ceiling. The din of a packed stadium chanting his name? The joy of feeling bat on ball? The sound of a cricket ball thudding into the wicketkeeper's glove near the ears? A split-second stumping off a wrist-spinner's googly? The joy of celebrating a century, arms aloft and looking skywards in memory of his father?
Before I can finish, Pant, smiling somewhat sheepishly, brushes me off. "Sixes. Hitting sixes. More sixes than before."
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