Rishabh Pant suffers multiple injuries in early morning car accident in Roorkee – how it happened 

India wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant was involved in a severe car accident early on Friday morning when he was driving himself from Delhi to Roorkee, with his car burning down completely after crashing into a road divider. 

The 25-year-old Indian wicket-keeper batsman was rescued by state bus drivers and was immediately taken to a local hospital from where he was shifted to Dehradun for the treatment.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) informed in a media release on Friday, saying,

“India wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant met with a car accident early on Friday morning near Roorkee, Uttarakhand. He was admitted to Saksham Hospital Multispecialty and Trauma Centre where he was treated for impact injuries.

“Rishabh has two cuts on his forehead, a ligament tear in his right knee and has also hurt his right wrist, ankle, toe and has suffered abrasion injuries on his back. Rishabh’s condition remains stable, and he has now been shifted to Max Hospital, Dehradun, where he will undergo MRI scans to ascertain the extent of his injuries and formulate his further course of treatment.

The Indian cricket board’s release added,

“The BCCI is in constant touch with Rishabh’s family while the Medical Team is in close contact with the doctors currently treating Rishabh. The Board will see to it that Rishabh receives the best possible medical care and gets all the support he needs to come out of this traumatic phase.”

Ashok Kumar, the Director General of Uttarakhand State Police informed NDTV channel saying, 

“Indian cricketer Rishabh Pant’s car met with an accident at around 5:30 am. The incident took place at Mohammadpur Jat near Roorkee … the car collided with the divider and caught fire. He was moved to the Roorkee hospital from where he has now been shifted to Dehradun.”

It was reported to the media by the police that Rishabh Pant, who was bravely rescued by a driver and conductor duo of a Haryana Roadways bus, said that he was travelling alone and that he had fallen asleep on the wheel which caused the accident. 

The severe crash, which was caught on a nearby CCTV camera and witnessed by a few others, saw two heroes from Haryana Roadways’ bus driver Sushil Kumar and conductor Paramjeet getting into action immediately. They also narrated the whole incident to the media.

Sushil Kumar told Hindustan Times,

”I am a driver with Haryana Roadways, Panipat depot. Our bus left Haridwar at 4.25 in the morning. I was on my way when I saw a car being driven at a lot of speed get off balance and crash into the divider. After the impact, the car landed on the wrong side of the road – the one that goes to Delhi. The car had screeched onto the second lane of the road, seeing which I immediately applied the brakes. The car had already caught sparks so I and the conductor rushed to get him out of the car. By then the fire has started. Then, three more people came running and got him on a safe side.

“I called the National Highway, no one answered. Then I rang up the police and the conductor called for an ambulance. We kept asking him if he is he fine… (we) offered him some water. After regrouping, he told us he is Rishabh Pant. I don’t follow cricket so I didn’t know who he was but my conductor [Paramjeet] then told me ‘Sushil… he is an India cricketer’.

“He gave us his mother’s number. We called her but her phone was switched off. The ambulance arrived after 15 minutes and we got him in … I asked him if he was alone in the car. He said there is no one,”

Sushil added.

Rishabh Pant was due to travel to Bangalore to be at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) for his strength and conditioning work, assigned to him by the Indian cricket team management as they wanted the mercurial player to be at his best for the upcoming four-Test series against Australia in February-March 2023. 

The cricket fraternity came together to send their messages on social media to the young cricketer, who has shown tremendous promise on the cricket field especially in red-ball cricket while delivering some famous wins such as India’s victory over Australia at the Gabba in Brisbane in early 2021.