Delhi franchise set to announce replacement for Rishabh Pant ahead of Indian T20 League 2023

Ahead of the Indian T20 League 2023 season, the Delhi franchise plan to sign Bengal's Abishek Porel as the replacement for the ailing Rishabh Pant. The signing of Porel, which has not yet been formally confirmed, follows a number of training matches at a week-long camp for training in New Delhi.

Porel and three other uncapped wicketkeepers, Sheldon Jackson, Luvnith Sisodia, and Vivek Singh, have spent the past week being observed by the coaching staff, which is led by director of cricket Sourav Ganguly and head coach Ricky Ponting, as well as going through a series of match simulation exercises.

The Delhi franchise's gamble on Porel follows his first complete domestic cricket season with Bengal, when he dazzled with his glove skills but struggled to put up large runs across formats.

Will Abhishek Porel start for the Delhi side in the Indian T20 League?

Porel could still be a backup option for wicketkeeping, as the team is eager to test Sarfaraz Khan at the position. Over the recent past few domestic seasons, Sarfaraz has consistently been in excellent batting shape. He is really one of just two people to have over 900 runs scored in back-to-back Ranji Trophy seasons. (2019-20 and 2021-22). He scored 556 runs in six innings this time.

Sarfaraz was chosen for his base cost of INR 20 lakh last year after playing a crucial knock to give Mumbai the victory in the Syed Mushtaq Ali final in November. He played in six games of the Indian T20 League 2022, scoring 91 runs with a top of 36 not out while batting in the bottom middle order.

The only other wicketkeeper available to the Capitals was England's Phil Salt, who was bought at this year's auction for INR 2 crore less than his basic price. Throughout the white-ball series in Bangladesh, Salt had a "frustrating time."

However, he has the benefit of having played 180 T20s, totalling 4118 runs at a strike rate of 149.79, with the majority of those runs coming in the top order. But this move looks unlikely considering Delhi have their overseas players already sorted out.