When India wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant was brought into a hospital in Mumbai following grievous injuries suffered in a car crash in December 2022, the first question he asked the attending doctor was “Will I ever be able to play again?” Surgeon Dr Anupam Govil, who led the team that treated Pant, recalled the 26‑year‑old asking amid a regimen of surgeries and rehabilitation, “My mind was only on cricket.” Pant’s injuries included multiple fractures to both shoulders, legs and a collapsed lung. Over several days of recovery, rehabilitation and multiple surgeries, Govil said, Pant’s resilience shone through. “He would ask after every procedure, ‘Doc, will I play again?’” Govil told PTI. By March 2023, after ten operations and months of physiotherapy, Pant was back in a cricket kit, though his return took longer than anticipated. “It was never just about healing bones,” Govil said. “It was about rebuilding his confidence.” Pant made a triumphant return for India in October 2023, scoring a match‑winning 81 against Australia.
