No runs, Poor strike rate, Bad captaincy, Rishabh Pant worth 27 crores flopped in every department, Sanjeev Goenka will beat his head after seeing the figures
Fans had high expectations from Lucknow Supergiants (LSG) captain and this season's most expensive player Rishabh Pant in the Tata Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. Pant, who was bought for a whooping price tag of 27 crore Indian Rupees, was expected to tear apart the opposition bowlers with his aggressive batting, but his performance so far has been very disappointing.
More than half of the season has passed in the IPL and Rishabh Pant's bat has not fired. He has scored only 128 runs in 10 innings of 11 matches played so far, out of which 63 runs have come in a single innings. His batting average is only 12.80 and the strike rate is also limited to 99.22. Which is the worst among the players who have played at least 10 innings.
Pant's performance as captain has also not been up to expectations. Lucknow Super Giants have won only 5 out of 11 matches, and their net run rate is -0.469. The team is at the seventh position in the IPL 2025 points table with 10 points. The hopes of playoffs seem almost over.
Lucknow Supergiants have lost 4 of their last 5 matches , and the one match they won was also by just 2 runs against Rajasthan Royals. In such a situation, the team's confidence seems to be continuously declining.
A minimum of Sixteen points will be necessary to make it to the playoffs in Tata IPL 2025. However, looking at the current situation, it seems that even 16 points will not be enough for the fourth position, and the net run rate (NRR) can play a decisive role.
If LSG wants to stay in the playoff race, they will have to win all three of their remaining matches, that too by a big margin, so that their net run rate can improve. Lucknow will play its last three matches against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on May 9, Gujarat Titans (GT) on May 14 and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on May 18.