Former South Africa captain Shaun Pollock slammed Lucknow Super Giants skipper Rishabh Pant’s comments that had hinted at too many decision-makers in the camp following their sixth defeat of the IPL 2026 season on Sunday night.
Pant’s men suffered yet another embarrassing defeat after they failed to chase down a 156-run target at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow, handing Kolkata Knight Riders a pulsating Super Over win despite a sluggish start after being sent into bat.
Post the defeat, a fifth in succession and an eighth consecutive loss at home, Pant hinted that there were too many opinions being fed to him from a vaunted coaching set-up. Reflecting on the decision to bowl spinner Digvesh Rathi in the final over, during which KKR batter Rinku Singh slammed him for four consecutive sixes, Pant said: “See, there are always times in cricket where you can turn a little bit of bowling at the same time. But sometimes bowlers have to bowl those hard overs.
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“And there will be time when I have to give him that in middle overs because I was looking for a wicket. I just didn’t get one. That was the thought process behind it. And too many minds doesn’t make it easy on the ground,” Pant said during the post-match presentation.
Besides head coach Justin Langer, the LSG backroom staff also comprise of Tom Moody as the Director of Cricket, former Kiwi captain Kane Williamson as the strategic advisor, assistant coach Lance Klusener and Bharat Arun as the bowling coach.
Pollock suggested that Pant’s comments threw the management group under the bus, suggesting that all wasn’t well around the leadership group.
“It’s not really good that it is coming from the captain because he is basically saying there are too many people giving me information, and he is kind of under the bus-ing the management group that they have got. Maybe we don’t know how it works, that’s the problem. You don’t know who has the final call, you don’t know who sits with him and gives him the understanding of what they feel and has the discussions with him,” Shaun Pollock said on Cricbuzz.
With two wins in eight matches, LSG are currently reeling at the bottom of the 10-team standings.
