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‘We Needed To Waste Time…,’ Rishabh Pant Admits Faking Knee Injury In T20 World Cup Final vs South Africa

Rishabh Pant briefly paused the T20 WC final vs SA [Source: Screengrab/@ICC/YouTube]Rishabh Pant briefly paused the T20 WC final vs SA [Source: Screengrab/@ICC/YouTube]

Rishabh Pant recently admitted to faking his knee injury in a bid to waste some time back in June this year during the final of the 2024 ICC T20 World Cup in Bridgetown. The dashing wicketkeeper-batter implied that he wanted to break South Africa’s momentum during the slog overs of their run-chase.

When South Africa required just 30 runs from the remaining 30 balls, Pant was spotted being catered by the physiotherapist of the Indian team between overs. The break seemed to have hampered South Africa’s belligerent throttle as they ended up falling seven runs short of India’s total.

Rishabh Pant admits ‘acting’ in T20 WC final

While speaking on the Star Sports network, Indian wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant claimed that he faked his knee injury during the final of the 2024 T20 World Cup on June 29 this year. The cricketer also recalled his conversation with the team physio at the time, claiming that he informed the latter to take his own time in the middle in order to break South Africa’s momentum. He said:

“I told physio to take the time, we needed to waste some time. Physio asked me 'Is your knee okay?', I told him it's fine, I'm just acting.”


Earlier this month, Indian captain Rohit Sharma also praised Rishabh Pant for using delaying tactics in the final. During his appearance on Netflix’s ‘The Great Indian Kapil Show’, Sharma praised Pant and described his break as one of the potential reasons behind India’s T20 World Cup triumph.

As it happened, South Africa reached 147-5 after 15 overs to require only 30 more runs from the remaining 30 balls. However, the injury break orchestrated by Rishabh Pant was soon followed by Heinrich Klaasen’s dismissal at the hands of Hardik Pandya.

David Miller failed to score the remaining runs while batting with the tail, as some tight death-overs bowling from Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya and Arshdeep Singh sealed the deal in India’s favor.