Pant Close To Getting Fit, Hopefully He'll Be Back For South Africa Series: Agarkar

(MENAFN- IANS) Dubai, Sep 25 (IANS) India's chief selector Ajit Agarkar on Thursday shared an update on Rishabh Pant, who missed the cut for the upcoming two-match Test series against the West Indies due to a foot injury, and said the wicketkeeper-batter is close to getting fit and he is hopeful of his availability for the South Africa series in November.

Pant, who was India's vice-captain in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy in England this year, suffered a fractured left foot during the fourth Test in Manchester. Agarkar, while announcing the Test squad for the series against the West Indies, said that Pant hasn't recovered sufficiently to make the cut and senior all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja has been named the vice-captain.

This will be Jadeja's first time serving as vice-captain in Test matches, although he has previously held the same position in ODIs and T20Is.

"Rishabh Pant is the vice-captain at the moment and a key player. But unfortunately, he hasn't quite recovered to make this Test series. Jaddu has been one of the top performers with a lot of experience. So that's essentially the reason," Agarkar said in a press conference on Thursday.

Pant has been undergoing steady rehabilitation as well as strength and conditioning work on his right foot at the CoE. A snapshot of his rehab and strengthening work at the CoE came when the left-hander posted an Instagram story of him doing his cycling session on Monday.

"We are hopeful by the time South Africa comes, he will be 100 per cent fit. I don't know about Pant's injury timeline. I know he's not going to make these two Test matches (against the West Indies) but after that he's very close to getting fit," Agarkar added.

In Pant's absence, Dhruv Jurel and N Jagadeesan are the two specialist wicketkeepers in the squad. Notably, Jurel, currently featuring for India A in the multi-day series against Australia A in Lucknow, was the stand-in keeper in England whenever Pant was unavailable and is expected to be the first choice to stand behind the stumps.

The upcoming Test series between India and the West Indies is a part of the 2025-27 ICC World Test Championship (WTC) cycle. India currently sits at third place on the WTC table after a 2–2 drawn series in England, while the West Indies are placed sixth following three consecutive defeats.

The series opener will be played in Ahmedabad, after which the action will move to Delhi from October 10.

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