“Personally, I was pretty nervous, but you have to go through this when you enter the field,” Pant told the official broadcast after the game. “But this isn’t the first time you’re feeling nervous. Happy about [returning to the game] but at the same time, I think we had a par score but because we were one bowler short, because of Ishant’s injury, but can’t do much about it.”

Ishant gave away eight runs in his first over as Capitals defended 174, but bowled Shikhar Dhawan with the first ball of his second over and then got a fingertip to the ball on his follow-through off a Prabhsimran Singh drive to run Jonny Bairstow out, in the same over. But, fielding at midwicket, Ishant hurt his right ankle while trying to stop a shot, and played no further part in the game. That meant more bowling for Mitchell Marsh and Sumit Kumar than Capitals might have wanted.

“He is pretty new. But the kind of impact he made was pretty big. Really looking forward [to seeing him] this season”

Rishabh Pant on Abishek Porel

The “few runs” Pant referred to when mentioning Porel were actually 32 from just ten balls. Batting as an impact sub for Ricky Bhui, Porel walked out 138 for 7 in the 18th over, took his time, and smashed Harshal Patel for 25 runs in the final over – 4, 6, 4, 4, 6, 1 – to give Capitals something to bowl at.

“I think it’s been an amazing innings,” Pant said of Porel. “He set the innings well for us and in the end we finished on a high because of him. And congratulations to him. I think it was his third or fourth game [fifth]. He is pretty new. But the kind of impact he made was pretty big. Really looking forward [to seeing him] this season.”