 "How Rishabh Pant's abysmal run in IPL 2025 jeopardises both his white-ball future with India and LSG's playoff hopes")
The ongoing season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) has witnessed its fair share of redemption stories in recent matches, from Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni finally producing a match-winning cameo against Lucknow Super Giants to former Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma returning to form with an unbeaten 76 , at the expense of Dhoni’s men though.
And Rashid Khan was going through his worst IPL season this year until he sealed Gujarat Titans' triumph over Kolkata Knight Riders in a space of three overs on Monday.
Rishabh Pant, on the other hand, has hardly made an impact with the bat in the 18th IPL season . That is after taking into account his 49-ball 63 against CSK, in which he was going at run-a-ball at one point and which ultimately was in a losing cause.
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He has been effective behind the wickets and has done a decent job in his first season in charge of LSG, leading them to five wins and four losses so far. Pant’s lack of contributions with the bat, however, has become the elephant in the room than the 27-year-old star as well as the franchise will have to address sooner rather than later.
Especially since the Super Giants shelled out an eye-popping Rs 27 crore for him the mega auction in November, making him the most expensive player in IPL history.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsDecision to bat at No 7 raises eyebrows
The latest of Pant’s failures was against his former franchise DC, at Lucknow’s Ekana Cricket Stadium on Tuesday, where he appeared to have pulled a leaf out of his old Dhoni’s book and came in to bat at No 7 when just two deliveries were left in the innings.
Pant had the license to swing his bat freely while facing Mukesh Kumar in the last two deliveries and that is precisely what he did, albeit with little success as he missed the first one before chopping the ball onto the stumps in the next ball.
BOWLED HIM! 🎯💥#MukeshKumar knocks over the #LucknowSuperGiants skipper #RishabhPant & leads the #DelhiCapitals charge for revenge!
— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) April 22, 2025
A fiery spell - 4️⃣ wickets for just 33 runs! 💪
Watch the LIVE action ➡ https://t.co/nyTn7oL9yY#IPLRevengeWeek 👉 #LSGvDC | LIVE NOW on Star… pic.twitter.com/r0oqyi5WXT
There wasn’t much that Pant could have done after coming in to bat in the final over other than tonk a six or two, and help his team finish their innings on a high. However, the fact that the likes of Abdul Samad and David Miller were sent ahead of him raises the question whether coach Justin Langer and mentor Zaheer Khan have suddenly lost faith his batting abilities.
If a demotion due to loss of form is indeed the case, it certainly will be a bad look for the star keeper-batter as well as for the franchise, the ones who put so much on the line for him to begin with.
Someone like Dhoni has already retired from international cricket. Additionally, his relationship with CSK is one that is unique in the cricketing world, where the franchise values his presence on the field and in the dressing room due to his stature as one of the greatest leaders this game has ever seen. That and his lightning-quick reflexes behind the stumps are why the Super Kings are willing to overlook a string of low scores.
White-ball future with India on the line
Pant’s poor run, however, not only affects his team’s chances of making the playoffs, but it also makes his route back into the Indian limited-overs teams all the more difficult. There was a period of time when Pant was indispensable to the Indian team across formats, after Dhoni bid international cricket goodbye in 2019, and he was part of the action in the back-to-back T20 World Cups in 2021 and 2022.
Pant was incredibly lucky to walk away from a terrible car crash in December 2022, but his absence from all forms of cricket for a year and a half allowed others to make a strong case for selection. And though he remains the first-choice wicketkeeper-batter in Tests, Pant has found himself getting sidelined from the ODI and T20I formats, especially after a mixed run in India’s victorious T20 World Cup in the US and the Caribbean.
So while Sanju Samson appears to have cemented his place in the Suryakumar Yadav-led T20I team as the first choice wicketkeeper and an ideal opening partner to Abhishek Sharma, the Men in Blue persisted with KL Rahul for the Champions Trophy earlier this year, which ultimately paid off as he played a major role in the Indian team’s triumph.
Rahul and Pant, who have swapped franchises after previously representing LSG and DC, are currently poles apart in the batting chart for the current season. Rahul has scored 323 runs so far at an average and strike rate of 64.60 and a strike rate of 153.80 respectively, and has been finishing games for his team .
Pant, meanwhile, 106 runs at an average slightly above 13 (13.25) and a strike rate that’s under 100 (96.36) – which is criminal in the slam-bang T20 format.
Next year’s T20 World Cup, hosted jointly by India and Sri Lanka, will be tentatively taking place in the months of February and March, meaning performances in the ongoing IPL will have a considerable influence on team selection, especially that of the Indian team. Let’s not forget the Asia Cup that will be taking place in September, which is where the think tank will be finalising its ideal World Cup combination.
And the way things are shaping at the moment, Pant’s nowhere close to being in the picture at the moment, with Rahul putting up a terrific fight against Samson – who remains the first-choice option thanks to his flurry of centuries that have been instrumental to India’s red-hot T20I run.
A resurrection in the remaining games of the season, however, could be a career-saver for Pant, and will justify his lofty salary at the very least.
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