From serious car accident to IPL record for ‘remarkable’ pants

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Two years after Rishabh Pant feared his cricket career was over in a serious car accident, the wicketkeeper has become the most expensive player in the history of the Indian Premier League.

The 27-year-old left-hander overcame his injuries to make a stunning return to elite cricket and was part of the India team that won the T20 World Cup in June.

On Sunday, Lucknow Super Giants paid 270 million rupees – $3.2 million – at auction for his services in the upcoming season of the lucrative IPL.

It broke the 2023 record of 247.5 million rupees, Kolkata shelled out for Australian fast bowler Mitchell Starc.

Lucknow coach Justin Langer called Pant a “character who can lift a team”, the Times of India reported.

Lucknow’s mentor, veteran Indian bowler Zaheer Khan, said he had seen Pant’s “spark” when he was a 19-year-old player in Delhi.

“(The way he has developed as a cricketer is remarkable),” he told the newspaper.

In December 2022, Pant suffered multiple injuries after his Mercedes crashed near New Delhi.

His vehicle overturned and caught fire, and Pant suffered a damaged ligament in his right knee and an injured wrist and ankle.

But Pant battled back through an intensive rehabilitation program and led the Delhi Capitals in the IPL this year with his fearless attack.

Pant himself called his return “nothing short of a miracle”.

Pant grew up in the city of Roorkee in the northern state of Uttarakhand, sharing a one-room home with his sister and parents.

His cricket-mad businessman father told him to pursue his dream of playing for his country.

“He told me he would support me – go and have fun playing,” he recalled in an interview with the Indian Express newspaper.

“What more could I have asked for as a boy?”

As a teenager, Pant spent weekends traveling with his mother, a teacher, on an overnight bus to the capital New Delhi – six hours each way – for cricket coaching.

“There were plenty of such matches in those days,” he told the Indian Express, describing how he would sleep in a Sikh temple before playing.

Pant is one of the mainstays of the India team and scored his maiden Test century in his third match against England in 2018.

In September, Pant announced his return to Tests in style with an attacking century against Bangladesh in Chennai, smashing bowlers to all parts of the ground and receiving a standing ovation.

“Rishabh’s history in the IPL and in the sport of cricket is unparalleled to his skills,” Lucknow owner Shashwat Goenka said of the record signing.

On Monday, Lucknow posted a picture of Pant leaping to catch a ball during the first Test against Australia in Perth – joking in his comment “when did Spider-Man start flying?”.

For voters, Pant is the epitome of the will to succeed against the odds.

“This game will test your limits, knock you down, lift you up and throw you back down again,” he wrote on social media earlier this year.

“But those who love it rise stronger every time.”