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All eyes will be on Rishabh Pant at the Ekana Stadium here on All Fools Day to see if he can emulate the two Dhurandhars of Indian cricket, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, who have already made strong statements with stellar batting performances in their opening IPL matches for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and Mumbai Indians (MI), respectively.
When Lucknow Super Giants take on Delhi Capitals in their opening match, Pant, who has been sidelined from international white-ball cricket, will be looking to make a fresh start, taking inspiration from the senior stalwarts. The LSG skipper will be eager to stamp his authority, not only as a batter, but also as a leader, given he has to look after both his own as well as his team’s interests with LSG chasing their maiden IPL trophy.
The biggest decision head coach Justin Langer has to make is Pant’s batting position. Last season, overseas batters Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh and Nicholas Pooran had hogged the top three slots, with Pant following at No. 4. But after a poor run, he promoted himself to No. 3 in the last league game against RCB here, and scored a superb century. Pant smashed an unbeaten 61-ball 118 studded with 11 fours and eight sixes as LSG posted 227-3 but still went on to lose by six wickets to RCB. However, despite the fact that Pant’s ton came a bit too late for the team’s benefit, it gave a clear indication of the position at which he is most useful to the team. Moreover, dropping Pooran down the order will strengthen LSG’s middle-order.
At Monday’s pre-match press conference, when mid-day asked Langer specifically about his plan for Pant, he replied, “He was brilliant in the last match of the previous season and we hope he picks up from there. As for his batting position, I’m not going to reveal it here. You will have to wait till 7.30 pm tomorrow to see who will play in the XI and at which position. It’s always good to be spoilt for choices. With all players fit and raring to go, we go into the tournament high on confidence.”
Langer added that it’s going to be a challenge to decide the playing XI. “We have got this pool of players, fast bowlers (Mohammed Shami, Mayank Yadav, Mohsin Khan, Avesh Khan, Anrich Nortje and Arjun Tendulkar) who are all fit to get selected. We have to work out tomorrow which players are going to fit the puzzle.”
0, 15, 2, 2, 21, 63, 3, 0, 4, 18, 7, 16, 118
Rishabh Pant’s scores at IPL 2025, totalling less than 300 runs and averaging less than 25 in 13 games
1 year 7 months
Period since Rishabh Pant last played a white-ball match for India — 3rd ODI vs Sri Lanka on August 7, 2024
269
Total number of runs scored by Rishabh Pant in IPL 2025 — his lowest aggregate since his debut season in 2016
24.45
Rishabh Pant’s average across 14 IPL matches in 2025 — much lower than his career average of 34.16
7th
Lucknow Super Giants’s position in the 10-team IPL 2025 under Rishabh Pant’s leadership
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