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Rishabh Pant and Ricky Ponting
Rishabh Pant was recently announced as the skipper of Delhi Capitals for the forthcoming IPL season. He has been handed over the captaincy reins after regular skipper Shreyas Iyer was ruled out of the tournament due to a shoulder injury.
Shreyas Iyer hurt his left shoulder during the first ODI game of India vs England. Despite Shreyas Iyer missing out the entire IPL season, Ricky Ponting expressed confidence that Rishabh Pant will do an excellent job as a leader. The 23-year-old was picked over the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin, Ajinkya Rahane, Steve Smith, and Shikhar Dhawan, who had prior experience of leading IPL franchises.
The 14th season will mark Rishabh Pant's debut as IPL captain
Rishabh Pant has been in blistering form. The 23-year-old began his purple patch in Australia with a counter-attacking 97 in the Sydney Test. It was then followed by the match-winning 89* in the historic win at the Gabba. The wicket-keeper batsman was in good form against England too. He smashed a brilliant century in the fourth Test in Ahmedabad and also did well behind the stumps on the turning tracks.
Talking about the ODI series, Rishabh Pant smashed a 40-ball 77 in the first ODI. The 23-year old helped KL Rahul add 113 runs in 80 balls to take the hosts to 336 in 50 overs. In the third and decisive ODI match, Rishabh Pant played in a similar way. The keeper-batsman attacked the visitors and added 99 runs in 73 balls with Hardik Pandya. He top-scored with 78 off 62 balls, consisting of five boundaries and four sixes. It gave India 329 to defend, and they won the match by seven runs to take the series.
The upcoming 14th season will mark Rishabh Pant's debut as IPL captain. Rishabh Pant has led Delhi's state team in the past as well. Shreyas Iyer & Co were the runners-up in IPL 2020 as they lost to Mumbai Indians by five wickets.
Delhi will begin its IPL 2021 campaign against Chennai on April 10. The IPL 2021 is scheduled to start on April 9, with Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians locking horns in the tournament's opening match.