Watch: Rishabh Pant reveals bold 'expectations tear you apart' philosophy, begins practice for Duleep Trophy

India National Cricket Team wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant has begun his preparations for the upcoming Duleep Trophy 2024, which will begin on 5th September. The tournament will also mark his return to the red-ball cricket after more than one year.

Rishabh Pant played his last red ball game in December 2022 against Bangladesh. However, after that, he faced a horrific accident and then was ruled out of cricket for more than one year. He missed crucial games for India including the ICC World Cup Test Championship 2023 and World Cup 2023 as well.

Rishabh Pant, however, made his return for the India National Cricket Team in the T20 World Cup 2024. He played a decent role for the team in the tournament and then also made his ODI return for the team in the last game of the three-match ODI series against the Sri Lanka National Cricket Team.

While Pant has made his return to the two formats, his grand return to Test cricket awaits, which has been his best format. The keeper-batter was named in the India B squad for the upcoming Duleep Trophy 2024, which will be key for his comeback in the Indian team.

Ahead of the Duleep Trophy, Rishabh Pant was seen getting into the groove for the tournament. The keeper-batter posted a video on Instagram on Monday, training in the nets. The left-hander played some crisp shots as he looked in good touch ahead of the domestic circuit. He posted the video with the caption:

“I try not to have expectations because they can tend to tear you apart. I try to work as hard as I possibly can and give every ounce of a hundred percent & keep learning from it.”

Rishabh Pant trains for Duleep Trophy 2024

Here's the video:

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A post shared by Rishabh Pant (@rishabpant)

Rishabh Pant will be extremely crucial for the India National Cricket Team with Test season around the corner. The team is scheduled to play 10 games, five out of which are against the Australia National Cricket Team down under and the rest against Bangladesh and New Zealand at home.

He will be a vital cog in the wheel for the team in Australia. In the last two tours, he has been sensational for the team with the bat. In 2018-19, he slammed a terrific century in Sydney and was decent throughout the entire series both with the bat as well as the gloves.

However, his best came in the 2020-21 series. The keeper-batter played an innings of 97 runs and helped India draw the Sydney game. After that in the next game, he played an unbeaten innings of 89 runs to help India chase the target in Gabba and win the series.

But, having returned from the injury, he might not be the first-choice keeper in the team. In his absence, Ishan Kishan, KL Rahul, and Dhruv Jurel made valuable contributions to the team. Overall, Pant has scored 2,271 runs at an average of 43.67, including five centuries in 33 games for India.