Dream Believe Achieve: Rishabh Pant
Rishabh Pant hails from Roorkee in Uttarakhand, where the sporting culture is not too developed and good academies to train at are far & few. But the family was determined to give the young lad better facilities to train & participate. Such commitment & big dreams led the family to move to Delhi where opportunities were waiting to be explored.
Rishabh’s childhood coach, Mr. Devender Sharma recalls that the Sonnet Academy had organized a 45-day Camp about 6-7 years ago. Rishabh’s father, who had always dreamed of watching his son become a cricketer, took him to the academy. For two days they stayed at the Moti Bagh Gurudwara, close to the Sonnet training ground, as they had no place to live in Delhi. His mother served at the Gurudwara as Rishabh focussed on his game.
Great results don’t always elude those willing to fight for it, as the young boy played an U-12 tournament and hammered three tons to earn the player of the tournament award.
Truckloads of talent was spotted, and the club coaches soon got him enrolled into the Air Force School in Delhi Cantt. Years of hard work & persistence later, coupled with incredible talent & hand-eye coordination, Rishabh made his way into the Indian Under-19 team. And he was in no mood to stop. In the 2016–17 Ranji season, Rishabh Pant played a brilliant innings of 308 runs & became the youngest Indian & fourth in history to score a triple century in first-class cricket.
Great results continued and the year 2016 saw him being selected by the Delhi Daredevils. In his third game in the IPL, he played a match-winning knock of 69 runs off 48 balls against the Gujarat Lions. Unfortunately, he lost his father in 2017, one of the lowest points of his life. Soon after cremating his father, Rishabh was back in full swing in his journey to fulfill his father’s dream. More recently, he has been the highlight of an otherwise dismal Delhi Daredevils’ performance in the 2018 IPL.
Incredible talent, incredibly hard work & an incredible will to succeed, Rishabh Pant is amongst the world’s best and he isn’t going to stop till the whole world recognizes it.
