IPL 2023: 'Hoping to get Rishabh Pant involved this season' - Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting

IPL 2023: Rishabh Pant will not be leading Delhi Capitals this season as he is recovering from his horrific car accident. Nevertheless, head coach Ricky Ponting intends on using the wicketkeeper-batter in some sense during the season.

Image credit: Delhi Capitals

In the past week, the Delhi Capitals' (DC's) head coach Ricky Ponting has been busy preparing the team for the 2023 Indian Premier League (IPL) at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi. When asked about the temporary change in leadership for this season, Ponting enunciated, "I have spoken to Rishabh a bit. We are hoping to get him involved this season. I'd love to have him at all our home games. Having him in our dugout or our changing room will be very special. However, David Warner will do a great job. He has been a successful franchise cricket captain in the past. He's excited to lead the team as well."

Image credit: PTI

Ponting also discussed functioning with DC's Director of Cricket, Sourav Ganguly. He said, "I have spoken to Sourav about the players we've got, possible line-ups, possible keepers and keepers and things like that. He always has some good things to say to the players during training. It was a lot of fun to work with him in 2019, and we won many games."

Image credit: Delhi Capitals

The Australian legend expressed his excitement about the IPL returning to its traditional home and away format after three COVID-restricted seasons, "It'll be harder on the players with much more travel in this IPL. But this is part and parcel of franchise cricket. I think more travelling makes the tournament more exciting. We'll get to play in many different venues and front of many different groups of fans." On Saturday, DC takes on Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in its IPL 2023 season opener.