Pant on path of quick recovery; Iyer, Bumrah poised to return for Asia Cup: Reports

Rishabh Pant’s return to cricket will take some time to materialize, but the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is hoping that the star wicket-keeper batter will be ready for the ICC World Cup by October, an ambitious timeline made hopeful by his quick recovery.

ESPN Cricinfo reported that Pant is undergoing rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru after surviving a serious car crash last December in Roorkee - a city in Uttarakhand. NCA physio S Rajnikanth and Thulasi Ram Yuvaraj are working with the wicketkeeper to increase his lower-body and upper-body mobility strengths.

While Pant is currently pain-free, NCA has facilitated his rehab sessions with aqua therapy, light swimming, and table tennis. To break the monotony, NCA Director VVS Laxman has arranged interactive sessions between Pant and batches of age-group cricketers - male and female - who have been attending training camps at the NCA. 

Meanwhile, in what has come as a great news for Indian cricket, Jasprit Bumrah and Shreyas Iyer are all set to return to the squad in late August for the Asia Cup. 

While Bumrah last played for India in September 2022, in a short bilateral series against Australia, after which he was ruled out of the ICC T20 World Cup and subsequently asked for surgery, Iyer dealt with a bulging disc in his lower back during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. He then underwent surgery in London and has been under rehabiliation since then.