IPL 2023: Ricky Ponting wants Rishabh Pant's name or number on the jerseys of every Delhi Capitals player.

Pant won't be a part of the playing XI for the Delhi Capitals in the IPL 2023 season. He is yet to recover from the multiple injuries that he sustained due to the horrific accident he suffered on the Delhi-Dehradun highway. Ponting, the head coach of the Delhi Capitals, said that Pant's jersey number might be printed on either the shirts or caps of the Capitals' players.

Pant has been a part of the DC team since 2017 after being a part of the India U19 team. That Indian team finished as the runners-up of the 2016 World Cup in Bangladesh. Back in 2021, DC named Pant as their skipper and he even led the team after Shreyas Iyer's departure.

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IPL 2023: Ricky Ponting's statement

"I only this morning, on the way to this gathering here, spoke to our manager about little ways that we might be able to actually include him without him actually physically being there, you know? His number might be on each of our playing shirts or his number might be on our caps, just so you know, for the players to understand that he's the heart and soul of the Delhi Capitals, he's a Delhi boy, he's our leader but he's not with us," Ponting said.

"So I want to be able to recognize as a team just how much we are thinking about him and how much we would love to have him part of his group again. So, we'll come up with some really nice way for the fans as well to be able to recognize how much he is a part of us and how much we are going to miss him this season," he stated.

"But as I've said, in an ideal world for me, and I said this couple of weeks ago, he's going to be sitting next to me in the dugout for every home game this season. Now, if that can work great, but if it can't, as I said, we'll find other ways to make sure he is part of what we are doing," Ponting added.

The Capitals will play their first match against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on April 1 at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow. David Warner will lead DC in Pant's absence.