'Don't watch cricket, didn't recognise him,' says bus driver who rescued Rishabh Pant

Haryana Roadways bus driver Sushil Mann, who was among the first few witnesses to see Rishabh Pant’s accident on the Delhi-Dehradun highway and helped him out of the car, said that he couldn't recognise the Indian cricketer. Mann did not know who the injured man was and said he just acted swiftly to call an ambulance.

"As he saw the car coming in at serious speed from the opposite direction, he put his bus on the side and quickly ran towards the divider,” Mann told a news channel.

“I thought the car would flip under the bus as it was turning over and over before it stopped,” he said.

Mann added that Rishabh's driver was half out of the window. "He told me he’s a cricketer,” Mann said, adding the cricketer asked him to call his mother, but his phone was switched off.

“I don’t watch cricket and I didn’t know this was Rishabh Pant. But others on my bus recognised him," Mann stated how he could not recognise the cricketer.

The bus driver further said, “After removing Rishabh, I quickly searched the car to check if anyone else was there. I took out his blue bag and Rs 7,000-Rs 8,000 from the car and gave it to him in the ambulance."

He said the cricketer was badly injured and was walking with a limp after the near-fatal accident. The bus was coming from the Haridwar side and Pant from the Delhi side.

Pant who suffered severe injuries in the collision, including two cuts on his forehead, a ligament tear in his right knee is fortunately not in immediate danger and is still being closely monitored by the doctors, Dehradun's Max Hospital informed.
 
The hospital said, "Pant is under the observation of Orthopedics and plastic surgeons. His condition is stable. His detailed medical bulletin will be released once he's examined. Thereafter, we'll take the next steps."

Also read: ‘Rishabh Pant’s condition is stable,’ says Dehradun hospital; here’s a list of his injuries after car accident

Also read: Rishabh Pant accident latest updates: BCCI in touch with Pant's family, doctors; 'distressed by the accident,' says PM Modi