Rishabh Pant, the man who became the latest poster boy of the Indian Premier League (IPL), as the mega auction concluded in November last year. But, little did the fans of cricket’s richest league know that spending a ‘record-breaking’ fee of Rs 27 crore would become one of the biggest reasons behind Lucknow Super Giants’ early elimination from the T20 league. Pant shattered all records as the Sanjiv Goenka-led franchise splashed an eye-watering sum to avail the wicket-keeper batter’s services. Cometh the 18th edition of the IPL, the management even decided to hand over the captaincy responsibilities to Pant.
No Confidence, No Clarity
In the 12 matches that LSG have played so far this season, Pant has had the opportunity to bat in 11. Barring a solitary half-century in the match against the Chennai Super Kings, which too came in a losing cause, Pant couldn’t even cross the 25-run mark in the other 10 games.
Pant made quite a few bizarre decisions over the course of 11 outings for LSG this season, one of which saw him even come out to bat at the No. 7 spot. The result was a Golden Duck, which was followed by an incessant flow of trolling on social media.
In the match against the Sunrisers, Pant made the bold call of demoting Nicholas Pooran, arguably the team’s most fearsome hitter, by one spot to play himself at the No. 3 position. Even this stunt didn’t produce the results the skipper wanted, as he was dismissed without even getting into a double-digit score.
Some dressing room scenes even hinted at a conflict between the team’s support staff and the skipper over certain on-field decisions. Confusion and a lack of clarity over the affairs of the team could be clearly seen.
Rishabh Pant’s IPL 2025 Stats (after 12 matches):
- Matches Played: 12
- Innings: 12
- Not Outs: 0
- Runs Scored: 135
- Highest Score: 63
- Batting Average: 12.27 (as per image)
- Balls Faced: 135 (as per image)
- Strike Rate: 100.00 (as per image)
- Centuries: 0
- Half-Centuries: 1
- Fours: 12
- Sixes: 6
- Catches: 5
- Stumpings: 1
Rishabh Pant In IPL 2025 (Match-By-Match):
- vs. Delhi Capitals: 0 (6 balls)
- vs. Sunrisers Hyderabad: 15 (15 balls)
- vs. Punjab Kings: 2 (5 balls)
- vs. Punjab Kings: 2 (6 balls)
- vs. Kolkata Knight Riders (DNP)
- vs. Mumbai Indians: 21 (18 balls)
- vs. Chennai Super Kings: 63 (49 balls)
- vs. Rajasthan Royals: 3 (9 balls)
- vs. Delhi Capitals: 0 (2 balls)
- vs. Mumbai Indians: 4 (2 balls)
- vs. Punjab Kings: 18 (17 balls)
- vs. Sunrisers Hyderabad (May 19): 7 (6 balls)
Team Balance Ignored
Tom Moody, an IPL-winner with the Sunrisers Hyderabad, feels the fact that LSG spent a combined sum of Rs 48 crore on the duo of Rishabh Pant and Nicholas Pooran played a significant role in the team’s inability to build a strong bowling attack. The balance of the team, skewed in the process, was hit significantly.
“The expense on Rishabh Pant and Nicholas Pooran, those two players, makes it very hard to build a very strong bowling unit. Because you just don’t have the funds to compete at the auction table,” Moody said in a panel discussion on ESPNCricinfo.
“In an ideal world, it’s great to have Pooran, (David) Miller, (Mitchell) Marsh, Pant… all these are impactful batters, but at the end of the day, you need to bowl. You’ve got to be able to have an impactful bowling unit in powerplays. Be adaptable in the middle overs and take wickets, and squeeze the opposition. And in the back-end of the innings, you need people to close the game under pressure – take wickets, bowl those really challenging overs when the opposition is going hell-for-leather against you. And I just don’t think they’ve got any of that.”
The core responsibilities of a management are to build a balanced squad that is capable of performing as a unit, not just individually. As the LSG management put its head into auction preparations, the balance was fundamentally ignored.
Having already spent Rs 21 crore for Pooran, Lucknow shouldn’t have gone as far as Rs 27 crore for Pant. But, the bosses gave in to the lure of signing arguably the most coveted Indian player in the market.
Rs 27 Crore Down The Drain?
Though money spent doesn’t directly transform into performances, a player of Pant’s calibre was expected to deliver a lot more than he has. The manner in which the 2025 season has ended for LSG doesn’t raise question marks over the franchise’s plans for the next year, especially the fact that the bosses have Pant in their plans or not.
