2-time ICC ODI World Cup winner Michael Clarke has garnered a lot of praise for Indian wicket-keeper batter Rishabh Pant for staging a fantastic comeback into competitive cricket. Notably, Pant was involved in a horrific car accident and has staged a comeback into the IPL after a long hiatus.
After scoring 51 runs in Delhi’s game against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in Match 13, Pant smashed a whirlwind knock of 55 runs in 25 deliveries in Delhi’s match against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on 3rd April 2024.
Rishabh Pant had a lot of onus on him as Delhi were being blown away by the KKR bowlers in Vizag whilst their target was a mounting one of 273 runs.
Clarke heaped praise on Rishabh Pant’s incredible road to recovery. Notably, Pant has revealed himself that he wasn’t sure whether he would ever be able to walk again. He went through three ligament reconstruction surgeries and also had to battle a lot of mental health issues.
“Yeah look it’s great for Indian cricket, but it’s also great for Rishabh Pant. I think the work that has gone into his rehab to get back to that level of play at any standard is an amazing achievement. He deserves a lot of credit for his hard work and it’s great to see him on the field, captaining and playing well, batting and keeping,” said Michael Clarke in the Cricket Live show of Star Sports.
Michael Clarke also labelled KKR’s decision of sending Sunil Narine as opener in IPL 2024 as a “smart decision”.
“Look, the thing is, KKR’s batting is so deep that you can afford to take that risk with Narine. So I think it’s a smart decision. I think the way he plays is maximum risk, so you have to accept that it’s not always going to come off as often as you’d like, or as often as a specialist batters can do. But I think he has done it before, he has done it successfully, and he strikes the ball as clean as anyone, so I think it’s a smart decision, I think it suits their batting line up and I think you’ll see him there throughout the IPL,” said Michael Clarke in the same show.
Michael Clarke is considered as an Australian legend
The former captain of Australia played 245 ODIs, 115 Tests and 34 T20Is for Australia and scored 7981, 8643 and 488 runs respectively for the 6-time ICC ODI World Cup champions.
Clarke has 8 100s in ODIs and 28 100s in the longest format of the game. He was the captain of Australia when they had won the ICC ODI World Cup in 2015 and subsequently had called it quits from international cricket post that marquee tournament.
