“Extremely lucky to be alive”: Doctor reveals chilling details of Rishabh Pant’s near-fatal crash

India’s vice-captain and wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant is currently making waves with his fabulous batting in the ongoing five-match Test series against England. Amid his heroics in England, Dr. Dinshaw Pardiwala, the orthopedic surgeon who treated Rishabh Pant, made some chilling revelations about the Indian cricketer.

Pant’s survival after his terrifying car crash in December 2022 was nothing short of a miracle. Even Dr. Dinshaw Pardiwala admitted that Pant was incredibly lucky to be alive. The crash was so severe that the car flipped over and caught fire, and in such a situation, the chances of survival are usually very low.

Doctor recalls Rishabh Pant’s miraculous survival and recovery

On December 30, 2022, the Indian cricketer was driving from Delhi to his hometown, Roorkee, early in the morning when he lost control of his Mercedes on the Delhi-Dehradun highway. The car skidded for nearly 200 meters before crashing into a divider. In that horrifying moment, Pant’s right knee twisted badly, and he thought his life was over.

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But somehow, he and two people nearby managed to break a window and escape before the car was completely engulfed in flames. Rishabh Pant was left with serious injuries to his head, back, and feet. After spending a week in local hospitals, he was airlifted to Mumbai for further treatment.

He was extremely lucky to be alive: Dr. Dinshaw Pardiwala

Dr. Dinshaw Pardiwala was quoted as saying by Telegraph UK, “Rishabh Pant was extremely lucky to be alive—extremely lucky. To be in an accident like this, where the car actually overturns and blows up, the risk of death is extremely high.”

He recalled, “When he first came in, he had a dislocated right knee. He also had an injury to his right ankle and lots of other minor injuries all over. He had a lot of skin loss, so his entire skin from the nape of the neck down to his knees was completely scraped off in the process of that accident. Then getting out of the car—that broken glass scraped off a lot of the skin and the flesh from his back.”

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Rishabh Pant escaped amputation risk after a car crash

After surviving a terrifying car crash, Pant’s second luck was that he didn’t lose his right leg. His knee had completely dislocated, tearing all the ligaments, and such types of injuries often damage major blood vessels. If that had happened, doctors would have had just a few hours to save his leg.

Thankfully, Pant’s blood vessels remained intact, which the surgeon said was incredibly fortunate. When Rishabh Pant met Dr. Pardiwala in Mumbai, his first concern was whether he could ever play cricket again. Well, Pant had to undergo full knee reconstruction and face a long, painful recovery.

'It is the third miracle that he is playing cricket after horrific accident'

Pardiwala revealed that the left-handed batter’s hands were so badly swollen from the accident that he couldn’t even hold a glass of water at first. For four months, he walked only with the help of crutches. Dr. Pardiwala admitted he wasn’t sure if Pant would ever play for India again.

The orthopedic surgeon’s first priority was to help the Indian wicketkeeper walk again, but he didn’t want to make big promises. Instead, he gave Pant hope by breaking the recovery into small steps, starting with the most important one: successful surgery.

Dr. Pardiwala noted, “When we discussed it just after the surgery, the way I told him is the fact you’re alive, the fact that your limbs survived—that’s two miracles down. If we get you back to competitive cricket, that’s going to be a third miracle. Let’s just hope for everything, and then take it a step at a time.”

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