Rishabh Pant’s returns with the bat continued to lag on Monday even as some of his big-ticket teammates at Lucknow Super Giants finally managed to find some form. The LSG captain fell after scoring 15 in 10 balls as LSG lost by six wickets to Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium, thus sinking to their sixth consecutive defeat.
The innings took Pant’s tally for the season to 204 runs at a strike rate of 128.30 and average of 25.50. While this is woefully below par by any standard, it is a continuation of a pattern that was set last season, in which Pant scored 269 runs in 14 matches at a strike rate of 133.17 and average of 24.45. Nearly half of those runs came from his last innings of the season alone, in which he scored an unbeaten 118 in 61 balls.
That innings remains an outlier, with Pant scoring just two half-centuries apart from that in the 23 innings he has played as captain of LSG, since he was bought by the side at the 2025 auction and became the most expensive player of all time. Langer was asked if Pant is still feeling the pressure of being the big ticket buy for LSG. “Honestly, I don’t think the money has anything to do with it; I don’t think that has anything to do with it at all. What I do think is that leadership is a tough position, you’re carrying lots of pressure, and he knows that,” Langer told the media after the loss to MI.
“He’s carrying a lot of pressure for the team, and he does it, like all of us, with a smile on his face 98% of the time. The other 2% of the time, it’s tough. But he’s chipping away, he’s working hard and, as I say, he’s had a match-winning game earlier in the season. We love it when we see him smiling and playing that swashbuckling style of play, and he’s not far off,” Langer explained.
Despite the loss, Langer backed captain Pant, insisting the wicketkeeper-batter was close to rediscovering his best form.
“Well, it’s funny how we played a practice game here two days ago, and Rishabh, I think he got… I’m not sure the exact final score, maybe 95 off 40 balls or 30 balls or something.
“And you’re just looking at it again, and you go, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s Rishabh Pant at his very best.’ So, you know, he’s a very good player; we know that. We’ve seen him in Test cricket destroy teams at number five.”
Langer hailed Pant’s decision to shift to No.5 on the batting order and sending out Nicholas Pooran in his usual No.3 spot. Pooran, who has been enduring an extraordinarily poor season, scored 63 in 21 balls. “And we felt today, with that and the way he played just two days ago after a seven-day break, that might be a good option for the team. He selflessly moved down the order to let Nicky P bat – that was unbelievable.”
“So yeah, I mean, Rishabh’s not far off. As a captain in the IPL, as a coach, you’ve got to keep fronting up, don’t you? That’s all you can do. And he’ll keep fronting up and hopefully help us get some wins over the next few games,” the Australian said. LSG next take on Royal Challengers Bengaluru at home on Thursday.
