(Illustration: Saurabh Singh)
A COUPLE OF NIGHTS before 2022 could advance into the new year, Rishabh Pant nearly lost his life in a car accident. On a late-night drive back to Roorkee from Delhi to surprise his mother, the brightest talent on the horizon of world cricket and captain of Delhi Capitals (DC), Pant fell asleep at the wheel even as the car drifted into the divider at high speed and flipped over. If not for the bus driver and conductor duo of Haryana Roadways, who pulled Pant out of the vehicle in the nick of time before it blew up in flames, he would not be narrating the tale, as he has been to television channels and podcasts in time for his cricketing return at this year’s Indian Premier League (IPL).
“For the first time in my life, I had given up,” he recently told Star Sports. “I felt like my time in this world was up.” But fortunately for Pant, his belief coupled with the best medical facilities that the country has to offer at his disposal, the wicketkeeper-batsman has been given the go-ahead from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to not only participate in IPL 2024, but also return as leader of DC in his very first cricketing outing. His presence and incredible story could well inspire the Delhi franchise, which has never won the IPL, to go the distance. But Pant’s re-emergence has given the upcoming season an undisputable theme: that of comebacks.
Several players are returning to the IPL or a particular team after an absence—due to a plethora of reasons, ranging from accidents to injuries to mental-health breaks to simply going AWOL in the recent past—making IPL 2024 the most star-studded affair in its history.
Not all returns are wholly accepted by the spectators either; just ask the fans of five-time champions Mumbai Indians (MI), who have made their displeasure widely known all over social media. The reason? Hardik Pandya returns to the franchise that first developed him into a star after having spent the last two years as captain of Gujarat Titans (GT), whom he also led to the title in 2022 and the final last year. But it isn’t his comeback that has irked the supporters as much as his return as captain of MI, taking over from the much beloved Rohit Sharma. Sharma, along with MS Dhoni, are the two most successful captains in the history of the IPL, with five trophies each as leader. So, when the incumbent India captain was made to step down in favour of the returning Pandya, the fans seethed openly.
“I respect their [fans’] opinion, but at the same time, I don’t focus on things I can’t control,” Pandya said in his first press interaction as MI skipper. “From now onwards, it will be about carrying forward what he [Rohit] has achieved, so there will be nothing awkward [between him and Rohit].” Making matters a little more challenging for Pandya is the fact that MI play GT in their opening fixture, in his former team’s backyard, Narendra Modi Stadium, in Ahmedabad.
Pandya’s return is also a segue into the curious case of his close friend and MI teammate, Ishan Kishan. Although he isn’t re-entering the Mumbai Indians set-up like his good friend and now captain, Pandya, the left-hander’s every move and emotion will be under the magnifying glass, given that the followers of Indian cricket haven’t seen him in action since the end of last year. After having featured in a few of the World Cup games, Kishan travelled with the Indian team for a tour of South Africa in December and ended up pulling out before the Test series started, claiming he needed a break due to ‘mental fatigue’.
Once he did leave the tour and get back to India, Kishan made himself unavailable for India’s five-match Test series against England and didn’t report to his state side, Jharkhand, in the then-ongoing Ranji Trophy either. Instead, he popped up at a local T20 tournament held in Mumbai and then began training for the IPL alongside the Pandya brothers in Baroda. Shortly after Kishan was pictured in the Ambani wedding bash in Jamnagar, BCCI secretary Jay Shah wrote a letter to all the centrally contracted players to prioritise domestic and national cricket over IPL training, or face “severe implications”. The warning ostensibly fell on a couple of deaf ears, so, in an unprecedented move, the BCCI omitted Kishan from their list of central contracts for 2023-24.
Several players are returning to the IPL or a particular team after an absence—due to a plethora of reasons, ranging from accidents to injuries to mental-health breaks to simply going AWOL in the recent past—making IPL 2024 the most star-studded affair in its history
Kishan wasn’t the only one. Shreyas Iyer, captain of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), too lost out on a central contract despite being one of the breakout players of the World Cup. Why? Because after he complained of back spasms during the second Test against England in Visakhapatnam, he was sent to the National Cricket Academy for rehabilitation and soon received a clean bill of health. Yet, Iyer did not make himself available for the second half of the England series, and neither did he show up, at that point, for Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy. Instead, he had begun training with KKR in a pre-season camp. The issue of the central contract, or lack of one, prompted him to appear for Mumbai’s last two knock-out matches of the domestic tournament, where, in the final he didn’t take the field on days four and five, complaining once again of a bad back. But it has been announced that he will be available for KKR’s first game in the IPL.
Iyer will hope that the presence of IPL’s most expensive signing of all time, Australia’s Mitchell Starc, in the KKR squad will take some of the focus away from him. Left-arm seamer Starc, who was bought for an incredible fee of `24.75 crore in the auction held last December, too, makes a full-fledged return to the franchise league after nine years, having last played for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in 2015. The fact that the auction was held just weeks after the Aussies won the World Cup in India helped the 34-year-old, just as it did Australia’s trophy-lifting captain, Pat Cummins. Cummins was momentarily the most expensive player when Sunrisers Hyderabad picked him for `20.5 crore, and he too is an IPL returnee, having skipped the season last year due to Australia’s heavy international workload, which included the World Test Championship final as well as the ODI World Cup, both of which he won. Now, he shifts his attention to pulling the 2016 winners out of their recent spate of last-place finishes.
Another eagerly anticipated return is that of KL Rahul, captain of Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), who missed the latter half of the 2023 edition after having injured his thigh while fielding on the boundary of their home ground, Ekana. This ensured a second surgery for Rahul in the space of 11 months and even made him miss India’s appearance at the WTC final at the Oval. But when he returned, just in time for the Asia Cup, Rahul made it count with an outstanding World Cup and an even better showing in the Test series in South Africa. LSG’s fans, hence, have much to look forward to, including a brand-new coaching staff in Justin Langer and Lance Klusener.
The newest aspect of Virat Kohli’s side is a change in name from Royal Challengers Bangalore to Bengaluru, announced with much festivity at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, where the franchise also celebrated the WPL title clinched by RCB’s women’s team. Could these factors eventually encourage Kohli and Bengaluru to end their trophy drought? Their opening game against five-time winners and defending champions Chennai Super Kings, helmed by MS Dhoni, which also happens to be the match to kick off the 17th edition of the IPL, could go a long way in setting the winning tone.
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