Rishabh Pant's back-to-back horror IPL seasons put LSG captaincy in jeopardy

Rishabh Pant batted at 4 different positions in IPL 2026. Removed Mitchell Marsh as the opener and demoted Nicholas Pooran. It's not just batting but Pant's letting LSG down with his captaincy as well.

It’s time for the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) to have a serious conversation about and with Rishabh Pant. The franchise flashed the badge of owning the highest-paid player in the history of the Indian Premier League (IPL) with honour. But it’s been nothing but misery since he joined.

Batting decline

His T20 batting was on the down curve anyway. Although Pant’s 2024 season has a sense of hope, it reverted to the expected. At one point, he was one of the most destructive batters in the league. From 2017 to 2019, Pant scored the most runs in the league: 1538. He averaged 38.45, all the while having the highest strike rate (168.08) for batters with over 900 runs.

From 2020 onwards, Pant has averaged over 35 just once and never struck over 160 in a season. That 2024 edition was the one where he returned after his accident. It was believed that during the 15-month off-time, Pant worked on his game. That has been disproved after he switched from the Delhi Capitals to LSG.

In fact, one can say that Pant’s batting has been worse in 2025 to 2026 than it was from 2020 to 2024. You see, the strike rates are going through the roof since the introduction of the impact player rule. So, a 130-strike rate in 2020 can’t be considered simply mediocre in 2026.

Can’t hit spin or pace

One asks, ‘What is the issue?’ In the 2017 to 2019 period, the majority of Pant’s innings came at four. Depending on the match situation, he was promoted or demoted. He’s doing the same for LSG for the most part. One simple answer is batting against spin. Pant averaged 44.67 and struck at 159.1 in the 3-year period for Delhi. For LSG, it’s 126.1 and 28.17. He has the 6th lowest strike rate for all batters with a minimum of 100 balls faced in 2025 and 2026.

Lowest strike rate vs spin from IPL 2025-26 (minimum 100 balls)

As a middle-order batter, Pant has to be efficient against spin. But his strike rotation is an issue. If he plays 100 balls against spin, 30 are dots. But the issue is that spin is a problem. Pant’s falloff against pace is much worse. From 2017 to 2019, only AB de Villiers and Andre Russell had a better strike rate against fast bowlers than Pant. Now, he is the 10th worst against the type of bowling. Similar to spin, his strike rate is an issue, especially since he plays in the middle overs when the field is spread out. Overall, Pant has the 13th-lowest strike rate in the IPL in the last two seasons across all bowling types.

Lowest strike rate vs pace from IPL 2025-26 (minimum 100 balls)

These numbers don’t warrant an INR 27 crore pay cheque. Perhaps 2.70 would be the right mark. But Pant doesn’t just play a batter. His price tag went there before LSG needed a captain. Similarly, Punjab Kings paid Shreyas Iyer INR 26.75 crore. Batting, leadership, and serving as the face of the franchise combined, one can understand why such an exorbitant price shall be paid to an Indian player.

Shreyas has more or less justified it. Taking Punjab to the finals in 2025, he is their highest scorer since joining them. But Pant’s captaincy hasn’t been that. Now granted, wins are the basic metric for evaluation success as a skipper, and LSG has just 10 wins under him in the last 2 seasons. But we won’t use that against him.

Form, injuries, and the opposition all play a role. It’s how you control the controllables that matters. Team selections, tactics on the field, over-allotment, and entry points. These are things that truly matter. Assuming that Pant, despite the plethora of coaches in the LSG camp, was calling the shots, he hasn’t done well.

Constant reshuffling of batters

In the first match of the season, Pant himself opened, pushing Aiden Markram down to three for reasons unknown. He batted at three in the next 7 games, demoting Nicholas Pooran. He apparently had a niggle but still played. Now, why would you remove one of the most destructive openers and number three from their spot?

Against Punjab, it was pre-decided that Ayush Badoni would open over Markram. He stuck with it, despite Punjab posting 254 on the board. Mukul Choudhary, perhaps their find of the season, was dropped. So, was Badoni with Himmat Singh playing ahead of them? Pant batted at five in the last game, which meant he shuffled his own position 4 times in 13 innings.

Errors in bowling department

Let’s go bowling now. Prince Yadav, Mohammed Shami, and Mohsin Khan did the heavy lifting, but still, Pant made a few errors. Markram was preferred to bowl over M. Siddharth against Punjab because two left-handers were batting. The part-time off-spinner went for 32 in that over. Meanwhile, Siddharth gave away 35 in 3 overs. To stick with Avesh Khan for 7 matches despite Akash Singh and Naman Tiwari being available didn’t make much sense either.

Shahbaz Ahmed wasn’t used often to provide balance and depth, despite Shami being slotted at number eight in several matches. Digvesh Rathi was expensive, no doubt, but to drop him wasn’t the right call. If Pant had stuck with Siddharth instead, then perhaps it would’ve been fine, but he didn’t do that either, and Rathi was brought into the team again.