Sri Lanka star places Pant at head of the table, says ‘Rishabh is the best…’

After being hit with a series of injuries, Team India can finally rejoice looking at the progress of few stars who have been sidelined for several months now. Jasprit Bumrah, who was dealing with a back injury, is finally making a return to the international stage as he will be seen leading the side in Ireland after a 11-month injury layoff.

Other stars, who the team have missed dearly is KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, and Rishabh Pant. While the first two are reported to miss the Asia Cup, fans are hopeful they might regain fitness and be available for the ODI World Cup, which is scheduled to be played in October-November this year.

Pant, on the other hand, is also reported to have resumed the batting drills at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru, with several media reports claiming that he is facing net bowlers, who can touch upto 140kph.

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The team has certainly missed Pant's services a lot, especially in the longer format. The southpaw missed the Border-Gavaskar series and the World Test Championship (WTC) finals. KS Bharat was roped in as a replacement in both the series but what the team missed most was Pant's counter-attacking abilities.

Ishan Kishan got a chance ahead of Bharat in the following Test series against West Indies and helped the team's cause up to a certain extent.

Such has been Pant's impact that Sri Lanka wicketkeeper-batter Niroshan Dickwella has called him the “best attacking wicketkeeper-batter at the moment”, also hoping for his quick recovery.

He, however, finds Wriddhiman Saha's glovework as the best.

"I really like Wriddhiman Saha. His glovework is really amazing. He has the best hands. He has a lot of experience. I really like his work ethic in Tests.

“As an aggressive player, I like Rishabh Pant. Rishabh is the best attacking wicketkeeper-batter at the moment. I hope he recovers and gets back in the team soon,” Dickwella told timesofindia.com in an interview.

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Dickwella is currently engaged with the Lanka Premier League (LPL) 2023, where he also leads Colombo Strikers. The Strikers also has Babar Azam in their ranks, who on Monday became the second only batter to slam ten T20 hundreds after Chris Gayle.

Babar is enjoying red-hot form in the T20 league and is the leading run-scorer with scores of 7, 59, 41, and 104 in four encounters. The Pakistan skipper had earlier mentioned that he will grab the opportunity to prepare for the Asian Games and the World Cup, and Dickwella confirmed Babar looks determined.

“Babar doesn't remove his pads. You will always see him with his pads on. He bats longer and longer, and is digging hard. I am sure he will perform really well and will be among the run makers in the Asia Cup and World Cup as well,” said Dickwella.