Rishabh Pant, who suffered a finger injury on Day 1 of the third Test at Lord’s, is expected to play in the fourth India-England Test in Manchester (July 23–24), though his availability as a wicketkeeper remains uncertain.
Pant didn’t keep wickets after the 34th over in England’s first innings at Lord’s. Dhruv Jurel stepped in as substitute keeper for the rest of the match. Despite the injury, Pant batted in both innings, scoring 74 and 9 runs.
India’s assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate provided an update after the team’s first training session in Manchester:
“He will bat in Manchester before the Test. I don’t think you’re going to keep Rishabh out of the Test no matter what. He batted with quite a lot of pain in the third Test, and it’s only going to get easier on his finger.”
“Keeping is the last part of the process. We need to make sure that he can keep—we don’t want to go through that again where we have to replace the keeper halfway through an inning.”
Pant skipped Thursday’s practice to rest the finger. The team is hopeful he will be ready in time.
“But he rested today, was trying to give the finger as long as possible, and hopefully, he’s good to go in Manchester in the first session. He is in the equation, but I mean if he’s fit, he plays the next Test and does both,” added ten Doeschate.
If Pant can’t keep, Jurel will likely take over the gloves, with one of Washington Sundar, Nitish Kumar Reddy, or Karun Nair expected to make way.
