Rishabh Pant has undergone a minor plastic surgery on forehead. He is currently stable and out of danger, informed DDCA director Shyam Sharma to NDTV.

India wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant crashed his car into a divider on an Uttarakhand highway at 5.30am on Friday after he fell asleep at the wheel but was able to scramble out of the burning vehicle in time, police said.

Rishabh, 25, is in ICU at a Dehradun hospital but is out of danger, a Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) statement said.

He “has two cuts on his forehead, a ligament tear in his right knee and has also hurt his right wrist, ankle, toe and has suffered abrasion injuries on his back”, the statement added.

The young cricketer was driving alone down NH58 from Delhi to hometown Roorkee to surprise his mother Saroj Pant and celebrate New Year with her, a doctor said. He was apparently travelling at high speed when his Mercedes-AMG GLE43 Coupe swerved, smashed through the iron railings on the divider and hit barriers on the right side at Narson Border, about 25km from Roorkee town.

The car skidded about 200 metres before stopping and catching fire. Some police officers who sought anonymity suggested that Rishabh was twice lucky. His failure to wear his seat belt did not lead to serious injury. He was able to quickly come out of the already aflame car “that was completely burnt in minutes”.

They clarified this was sheer good fortune and that every driver and passenger should at all times wear their seat belts, which can be life savers. Eyewitnesses said a shaken Rishabh told them: “Aaj main bach gaya (I was able to survive today).”

News agency PTI quoted Dr Sushil Nagar, who attended to Rishabh in a Roorkee hospital where he was taken first, as saying that most of the injuries were caused “because he had jumped out of the car by breaking a window” and landed on the road.