Rishabh Pant's Injury to Force Him Miss 2nd Test vs New Zealand in Pune? Rohit Sharma's 'CAREFUL'

Ind vs NZ: Rishabh Pant is a 'once in a generation' cricketer and hence will the Indian team risk him in the Pune Test considering there is a long season ahead with five Tests against Australia coming up? This is going to be a tough call that needs to be taken by the management and they do not have a lot of time. The second Test match in Pune starts from October 24 and Pant would be entering the game carrying an injury. Following the game in Chinnaswamy, India captain Rohit said that one has to be careful in handling Pant as he has had a lot of minor surgeries and a big one on his knees. 

‘We just need to be extra careful’

On handling Pant with care, the skipper stated, "With someone like him, we just need to be extra careful. Because he has had a lot of minor surgeries, one big surgery on his knee. He has also gone through a lot of trauma."

Meanwhile, Team India suffered its third loss in the ongoing World Test Championship 2023-25 cycle. After South Africa and England, it is the third SENA country- New Zealand- that has inflicted defeat on India. The massive batting collapse in the first innings left Team India with too much to salvage in Bengaluru. Nevertheless, the team stood up to the challenge in the 2nd innings but could only push the visitors to chase a meagre 107. New Zealand got to the total seamlessly with 8 wickets in hand and took a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

How Can India Qualify For The WTC 2023-25 Final

Despite the loss, Team India has remained firm on top in the updated World Test Championship points table. However, the loss has somewhat distanced the WTC final spot from India. With seven games left in the cycle, Team India needs to pick a "W" in four of them at least and requires two draws too, in order to qualify for the final. A clean sweep over New Zealand would have taken the pressure off but it wasn't to be. In fact, India would now look to pick victories over New Zealand in the remaining two matches at any cost. The objective would be to cover as much ground as possible ahead of the daunting tour Downunder, where India will play Australia five Tests in the Border Gavaskar Trophy.