The injury happened in the 37th over of New Zealand’s innings, when Pant missed a stumping chance against Devon Conway off the bowling of Ravindra Jadeja and got hit on the knee after he failed to collect the ball. He went off the field immediately and was replaced by Dhruv Jurel.

“Unfortunately, the ball hit straight on his knee cap, the same leg which he’s done a surgery on. So he has got a bit of swelling on it” Rohit said after play in Bengaluru. “And you know the muscles are quite tender at this point in time so it’s a precautionary measure. We don’t want to take a risk. Rishabh doesn’t want to take a risk because he has gone through a massive surgery on that particular leg. That was the reason for him to go inside. Hopefully, at night he can recover and we will see him back on the field tomorrow.”

Pant had suffered career-threatening injuries during a car crash in December 2022 and only made his comeback in IPL 2024 earlier this year after undergoing knee surgery.