THIS IPL star who was involved in a life-threatening car accident, he is not Rishabh Pant, and has now set new record

This left-handed wicketkeeper was involved in a horrific car crash in 2015 and was unable to stand on his feet for another six months.

Rishabh Pant isn’t the only cricketer in the world who is making a comeback from life-threatening car accident. There is another left-handed batter, who is also a wicketkeeper and he spent six months on a hospital bed unable to stand on his feet after a horrific car crash nine years back.

We are talking about West Indies and Lucknow Super Giants batter Nicholas Pooran, who has made a remarkable comeback from that car accident and is one of the best T20 players in the world now. On Tuesday, Pooran became the first man ever to hit more than 150 sixes in a calendar year in just his 63rd T20 match in 2024 in the ongoing Caribbean Premier League (CPL) T20 2024 tournament.

Pooran’s countrymate Chris Gayle is next best with 135 sixes in 36 T20 matches in 2015. But all of this was far cry when the Windies southpaw was sent to the hospital after a horrific car crash.

The Windies cricketer, who was just 19 years of age back then, injured his left leg in an accident while coming back from training in Trinidad. “I was coming back home from training, driving,” Pooran had told ESPNcricinfo website.

Back in 2015, Nicholas Pooran met a fatal car accident and his cricket career almost ended at age of 19 but he never used that accident to gain sympathy and didn’t make a single PR documentary.

He was on Wheelchair and Cruches for a year and still said in an Insta post that it… pic.twitter.com/LGwDm8Jbi9

— Rajiv (@Rajiv1841) May 24, 2024

“I was close to home and a car was overtaking another car, so I pulled away. I hit a sand heap and then I came back onto the road and another vehicle hit me. I was knocked out and then I couldn’t remember what happened. I just woke up at the accident and I was like, ‘How did this happen?’ I was shocked. I couldn’t believe that this happened. I was taken in an ambulance, couldn’t move my legs,” said Pooran.

Pooran’s left patellar tendon was ruptured totally and his right ankle was fractured to the extent that he couldn’t even straighten his leg. He underwent 2 surgeries, one less than 24 hours after his accident. His physical therapy took more than 18 months but he managed to find his way back into cricket.

The LSG batter had revealed during the IPL 2023 last year that he had been in touch with Rishabh Pant during his difficult period out of the game. “It’s very challenging. It’s one where no one understands. Sometimes, I can remember… I have been chatting with Rishabh obviously. Both of us have a really good relationship.

“But there are times when you go into a place where you’re very depressed, and frustrated, because you want the healing process to happen so fast. But it’s difficult,” Pooran had said.

Pooran was bought by RPSG group-owned LSG for Rs 16 crore ahead of the IPL 2024 season and scored 499 runs in 14 matches at a strike-rate of 178.21 in IPL 2024. He is now closing in on Pakistan’s Mohammad Rizwan’s record of most T20 runs in a calendar year. While Rizwan had scored 2,036 runs in 48 matches in 2021, Pooran has already scored 2,022 runs in 2024.