Wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant limped his way to complete the catch off Varun Aaron's bat as Delhi Capitals celebrated an emphatic win over Rajasthan Royals at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Friday night. But the first question that came to mind was whether Pant's limp was something serious. Luckily for both the player and the franchise, it was just soreness.
Delhi Capitals might be sitting pretty at the top of the points table with 10 points from six games in the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League, but they have had their share of injury woes. And when Pant started limping towards the end of the Rajasthan innings on Friday, the fear of another injury setback immediately came to mind.
Sources in the know of developments told that it was just a case of going sore due to the humidity. "No injury worries there. He is one of the fittest guys and it is due to the humidity that sometimes you cramp up or go sore. You can see the humidity levels here in the UAE," the source pointed.
Pant was seen limping when he completed the catch to dismiss Aaron off Kagiso Rabada's bowling. Before that, he was seen struggling with reaching the wickets for the throws from the deep as well. But it started with a sprint towards mid-wicket to stop a quick single earlier in the innings.
Delhi have had quite a few injury worries this season and started with Ishant Sharma having to miss the first few games due to back spasm. If Ishant missed the first few, Ravichandran Ashwin hurt his shoulder in the first game itself after starting off with wickets in his very first over.
While the shoulder injury did turn out to heal quickly, luck wasn't on Amit Mishra's side. Trying to pick a return catch off Kolkata Knight Riders batsman Nitish Rana's bat, Mishra managed to injure a tendon in the ring finger of his bowling hand. In the end, he was ruled out of the tournament.
With humidity playing a big role this season, it will indeed be interesting to see how the franchises manage the workload of the players, especially the international cricketers as some of them will be going ahead and playing for India against Australia in the bilateral series that follows the Indian Premier League.
( With inputs from ANI )
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