Rishabh Pant hasn’t set the stage on fire in IPL 2025, but Nicholas Pooran is certain that his captain at Lucknow Super Giants will soon join the party.

Their friendship and mutual admiration blossomed a fortnight after Pant met with a near-fatal car accident on the Delhi-Dehradun highway on the night of December 30, 2022. Pooran was among the cricketers who regularly texted him and encouraged him to make a comeback.

Pooran had gone through a similar fate a year after he finished as the fourth-highest run-getter in the U-19 World Cup in 2014. The accident left Pooran with a torn patella tendon, fractured tibia and fractured ankle.

He felt like he would never play cricket again and it took more than a year-long recovery process to get back on his feet. Pooran could relate to Pant’s pain and the mental scars as he lay on the hospital bed, barely able to walk after the surgery.

“I did reach out to him. We spoke, we chatted and talked for an hour or two. I just felt like I was responsible as well. It was very challenging.

“If I didn’t reach out to him, then I would have felt really bad in that position. And that he was involved in an accident which was probably worse than mine. I just felt like it was really important for me to pick up the phone and call, regardless of whether he answered or not,” Pooran told The Telegraph.

“There were moments where he would have gone through certain things and people wouldn’t understand. And I was just really happy to be there. Just being on the phone, sharing experiences and just telling him, it’s gonna be all right,” he recalled about their conversation.

They weren’t teammates then, but the bonding wasn’t to be missed. Pooran tried to revive the spirits in Pant as he battled a critical phase of his life.

Pooran even told him that he would be a part of the T20 World Cup-winning side, which ultimately proved to be true.

“I even joked with him a few times. What’s it literally, last year, I was like, ‘just imagine you come out of your accident and you play in a World Cup next year and you win it for your team’. We were chatting about it on the bus, what it was, and we were just laughing because, you know, words are so powerful,” Pooran recounted.

“And I was like, you remember when I told you, what if you come out of this accident and you play the World Cup next year and you win the World Cup and you just had to laugh? Yeah, it was amazing.

“Just really happy that he’s back doing wonderful things for, obviously, India, himself and his family. It’s nice to see he’s back on the cricket field.”

IPL’s top run-getter holds his captain in high esteem and hopes he will soon be back among runs.

“Obviously, we know what he brings to the table both on and off the field. He’s the
life of the party. I think he really connects with the players on all levels.

“He has the support of all the players, both on and off the field. He knows it. The pressure is not just on him to perform but on everyone. Everybody wants to perform. As I keep telling them, we will back him if he’s not going to score runs.

“We will score runs. Whenever Pant comes to the party, it’s a bonus for us. So you
take your time. Yeah, you take your time.”

Pant has managed just 19 runs from four innings in this IPL so far. Pooran is hoping his words of comfort will allow Pant to relax and reduce the pressure on the field.