Pant and Gill likely to be fit to play Pune Test

NewsPant was sidelined for large parts of the first Test after taking a hit on the knee, while Gill was left out of the XI due to neck stiffness

Rishabh Pant and Shubman Gill are both likely to be available for the second Test against New Zealand, India’s assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate has suggested two days out of the game.

India are also hopeful of Pant returning to action as a wicketkeeper as they aim to bounce back from the defeat in the series opener in Bengaluru.

Pant hurt his knee on the second day of the Test when he was attempting to stump Devon Conway in the 37th over of New Zealand’s innings. He failed to collect the ball and copped a blow. He winced in pain and went off the field straightaway. Dhruv Jurel took the gloves from Pant and kept for the rest of the first innings and the 27.4 overs of New Zealand’s second innings.

Gill had missed the Bengaluru Test with neck stiffness.

“Rishabh’s pretty good,” ten Doeschate said. “I think Rohit [Sharma] touched on it the other day. He was having a little bit of discomfort at the end range of his movement with the knee. But fingers crossed he’ll be good to keep in this Test as well.

“He’s batted last week in Bangalore, he had a few nets,” ten Doeschate said of Gill. “He’s got a little bit of discomfort, but I’ll think he will be good to go for the Test.”

The team will of course be wary of taking risks with Pant’s knee because of the serious knee injuries he sustained in a car crash in December 2022. While he did come back to bat in India’s second innings in Bengaluru, hitting 99 off 105 balls, he showed signs of discomfort while running between the wickets. After India had lost that Test, captain Rohit had called for an “extra careful” approach with respect to Pant’s injury.

During India’s first practice session in Pune on Tuesday, it was Jurel who was the first to undergo keeping drills with Pant watching from the sidelines. Pant then batted at full tilt in the nets against India’s spinners and net bowlers. Pant also kept wicket at the fag end of India’s training session.

Ten Doeschate also clarified that R Ashwin, who just bowled two overs in New Zealand’s chase of 107 in the first Test, isn’t carrying any injury. Ashwin had conceded 94 runs in 16 overs for just one wicket in New Zealand’s first innings, as Rachin Ravindra and Tim Southee took the attack to him, but India aren’t reading too much into it.

“Ashwin’s fine. He’s absolutely fine,” ten Doeschate said. “He bowled nicely. I know he bowled only two overs in the second innings, but it looked like his pace and his rhythm were back to where it needs to be.”

With Pune set to roll out a low-bounce black-soil pitch that could aid turn, India have beefed up their spin stocks by calling up offspin-bowling allrounder Washington Sundar as their fourth spin-bowling option behind Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel. Ten Doeschate dismissed notions that Washington had been added to the squad as part of “desperate measures” after India had been shaken up in Bengaluru.

“Did you say desperate measures? No, definitely not,” ten Doeschate said. “Look, we’ve obviously got Axar in the squad as well and with four left-handers in their XI, we want the option to take the ball away from the left-handers as well.”

That count could increase to five if New Zealand choose to boost their own spin attack by recalling Mitchell Santner. Washington has not played Test cricket for India since March 2021, but his recent form in red-ball cricket is encouraging. In the second round of the ongoing Ranji Trophy, Washington made 152 from No. 3 and followed it with a match haul of six wickets for Tamil Nadu on a fairly flat Delhi pitch. While there wasn’t much turn on offer at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Washington kept things tight and even managed to challenge the outside edge of the right-hand batters with some drift.

“We’ve had Washy around the white-ball squad for a while and [we] like the way he operates,” ten Doeschate said. “And it’s also nice to see guys are getting rewarded for Ranji Trophy performances as well. So hopefully that sends a good message out to the other guys and it’s certainly not a desperate measure. We’ve certainly got a lot of faith in the spinners that we have, and we just want to make sure we’re absolutely prepared for the conditions and if that does mean taking the ball away from the left-hander, we want that option.”

Deivarayan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo