Published: Jun 29, 2025, 09:21 PM (IST)
Edited: Jun 29, 2025, 09:21 PM (IST)
Dr. Dinshaw Pardiwala, the surgeon of Indian team’s star wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant, called the summersault celebration by the cricketer as ‘unnecessary’. Pant scored a century against England in the first Test, and celebrated that feat with his iconic summersault– also known as the handspring.
Now, during an interview with The Telegraph, Dr. Pardiwala stated that even though Rishabh Pant has trained as a gymnast- which has given him the ability to perform his acrobatic celebration. However, even though he stated Rishabh had the training to perform it, the summersault may not be necessary.
“Rishabh trained as a gymnast. Although he looks large, he is quite agile, and he does have a lot of flexibility. And, that’s why he’s been doing those somersaults of late,” Dr. Pardiwala said.
“It’s a well-practised and perfected move – unnecessary though!” he added.
To give context, Rishabh Pant faced a devastating car accident in December 2022, and was brought into a hospital in Mumbai. Pant was driving from his hometown Roorkee and was going to Delhi on December 30, 2022- when he lost control of his car and eventually crashed into a divider. This left him with severe injuries that even made everyone raise questions about him even being able to play again.
“When he first came in, he had a dislocated right knee. He also had an injury to his right ankle, 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,” Pardiwala recalled the brutal impact of the crash on Pant’s body.
Pardiwala said that Pant was extremely lucky to not lose blood supply in his right leg given the severity of the injuries, as it could have led to serious complications including amputation.
“When your knee dislocates, and all the ligaments break, there’s a high possibility of the nerve or the main blood vessel also being injured…” he said.
“Otherwise, there’s a risk of losing your limb. The fact that his blood vessel wasn’t injured despite having a severe high-velocity knee dislocation was extremely lucky,” Pardiwala explained.
Despite managing to recover from such a jaw-dropping accident, Rishabh Pant did not only survive- but made a spectacular comeback in the game. As of now, The Roorkee-based cricketer is playing against England for a five-match Test series, which began June 20. Pant scored centuries in both the innings of the first match, and will be aiming to keep his flow in the rest of the matches a well.
