Delhi Capitals skipper Rishabh Pant has been making headlines – for all the right reasons in the Indian Premier League (IPL) of late. Yet some social media users have been trolling him for his performances in the cash-rich T20 league. In fact, his last game against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) saw some wild allegations levied at him. 

 

Rishabh Pant played a blinder against the Kolkata Knight Riders, producing a scintillating knock of 55 off 25 balls as he tormented the Kolkata Knight Riders' bowlers with his clean striking all over the ground.

 

During his stunning innings against the Gautam Gambhir-coached side, the southpaw even took Ventakesh Iyer to the cleaners, having hit him for 28 runs in an over. Remarkably, Rishabh Pant tore him apart, striking him for four boundaries and two sixes in that over.

 

Though Rishabh Pant lit up the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam, he failed to power the Delhi Capitals to victory against the Kolkata Knight Riders in that encounter as the left-hander's team lost the game by 106 runs. 

 

This came after Sunil Narine sparkled at the top for KKR, dealing in fours and sixes during his dazzling knock of 85 off 39 balls after Shreyas Iyer chose to bat first after winning the toss. 

 

Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Andre Russell, and Rinku Singh ably supported him, clobbering 54 off 27, 41 off 19, and 26 off 8 balls, respectively.

 

Their blazing knocks together took KKR to an improbable target of 272 in their allocated 20 overs. 

 

Chasing a mammoth target of 273, the Delhi Capitals never got going, and except for Rishabh Pant and Tristan Stubbs (54 off 32 deliveries), no other batter from the franchise made his mark in the match.

 

While Delhi Capitals lost the match by a big margin, Rishabh Pant's supporters praised him wholeheartedly, which irked his opponents on X, who posted some of the most bizarre remarks to describe his knock.

 

Despite criticism of his innings on social media, Rishabh Pant earned rich plaudits from former cricketers for the way he's made his return to competitive cricket.

 

Australian legends Michael Clarke and Ricky Ponting were impressed by Rishabh Pant's display in the IPL and hoped to see him representing India in the T20 World Cup in the West Indies and the US in June. 

“Pleased for him, what he did with the bat. A situation like that, where he had to go out and attack from the start is probably a scenario that he needed just to get some confidence back. He's actually had two good games with the bat now, which is great,” Ricky Ponting opined.

 

“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,” Michael Clarke told Star Sports.

 

“I saw the Delhi physio run out to the field a couple of times to check on him, so hopefully he's pulled out okay, the positives are in the presentation he said he was fine and hopefully a day off or a couple of days off and he will be ready for the next game. He's a wonderful player and everybody is happy that he's back on the field and we want to see him play for Delhi, but we also want to see him come back and play for India as soon as possible,” he added. 

Overall, Rishabh Pant has scored 152 runs in four games, including two half-centuries in the ongoing edition of the IPL. Notably, he has scored his runs at a healthy average of 38 and a sensational strike rate of 158.

 

Rishabh Pant spent 15 months on the sidelines due to a life-threatening car accident in December 2022, missing out on participation in last year's ODI World Cup, IPL, World Test Championship final, and this year's India vs England Test series.