Rishabh Pant Injury, Can replaced player bat, ICC rules explained

Rishap Pant Injury: It was terrifying of Rishabh Pant Day 1 in the Manchester Test against England when he inside-edged a reverse sweep onto his foot off the bowling of Chris Woakes. The then vice-captain of the Indian team was vicariously suffering since the physio ran out at breakneck speed to treat Pant. He lain on the ground minutes. The 27 year old could not place any weight on his foot and he was finally ruled out of the field.

An ambulance that looked like a golf cart was brought to get him out of the playing field. He was initially given first aid treatment at Old Trafford in the medical aid room but just before the end of the game, the wicket keeper-batter was taken to the hospital to undergo scans. At that time, Pant was at 37. He together with Sai Sudharsan were eyeing to snatch the game away to England but God had a different scheme of play.

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Pant is now not available in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, as exams showed that he has a fracture in his toe. The wicketkeeper has six weeks rest advised to him.

Even former England captain Michael Vaughan has come up with a suggestion after this incident stating that teams should be allowed to have substitutes who can bat or bowl in case of any member getting an injury such as this one. Competition between 10 vs 11 is not right in terms of four days before the game.

But this is not the opinion of former India wicketkeeper-batter Parthiv Patel who reminds that the rules are already established and there is no necessity to make changes in them.

"There are already quite a few grey areas that teams try to exploit. Like in T20 cricket, we've seen, you know, the concussion rule, and people try to take advantage. So, in an ongoing game, if someone gets injured, what do you do? So, I think it's only fair. At least, now the rule has changed so that a wicket-keeper can do wicket-keeping. Otherwise, it wasn't even there," said Parthiv, a JioHotstar expert, during a select media interaction on Thursday.

"Someone from the team would have had to keep wickets, but I'm okay with the rule. It's unfortunate that Rishabh got hit, but it is what it is. What can you do about it?"

And this is not the first instance that Pant got an injury during the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. The last Lord Test witnessed the Indian keeper getting hit in his hand when he attempted to take a catch of a Jasprit Bumrah ball. He was being treated on his hand and returned to the dressing room. Pant did not continue wicket-keeping throughout the match with Dhruv Jurel being appointed a replacement wicket-keeper. He has also got 74 in a first innings but he was seen in pain in the second one as he had jam his hand and bat down after he was continually bombarded with yorkers by Jofra Archer.

"I don't think there is any question about KL keeping in this Test match. Because if Rishabh Pant is injured, the rule also allows Dhruv Jurel to keep. There is no debate about anything. If Dhruv Jurel will be keeping, it's fine. If Rishabh Pant is injured, nothing can be done," added the 40-year-old.

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'Abhimanyu Easwaran doing everything he can'

Even as Karun Nair and Sai Sudharsan are the talk of the town, someone called Abhimanyu Easwaran is also in the fray. He has already been a part of the Indian Test side in more than one series but still has not got a chance. Easwaran has accumulated the runs during the Ranji Trophy. But still, by hook or crook, each team management, whether it is Ravi Shastri and Virat Kohli, Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma or the current one Shubman Gill and Gautam Gambhir are always ignored. Parthiv feels that Easwaran is doing all that lies within his capability but getting into Test XI is a challenging one.

"He is doing whatever he can do. I can clearly understand what he must be going through, or he must be thinking. Because he is doing whatever he has been asked to, whether it is India A, domestic cricket, or the Duleep trophy, he has been scoring runs. But unfortunately, at this point in time, India has settled openers in terms of KL Rahul and Yashaswi Jaiswal. And before this, it was the captain Rohit Sharma who was opening with Yashaswi Jaiswal," said Parthiv.

"So, there are certain situations where, you know, you can't do anything about it. So, it's like when Dhoni was keeping, everyone else was competing for the number 2 spot. Like whether it was Dinesh Karthik, me, or Wriddhiman Saha. But that's the situation. Wherever you get an opportunity, you try and score runs. And unfortunately, that's the situation right now for Abhimanyu. But at least, he is there as the third opener on every tour. And you just have to, I feel, just be ready. And hopefully, an opportunity comes."

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