Rishabh Pant has made a career out of playing shots no one else might even conceive. The falling scoops. The one handed sixes. All of which has helped him add a little T20 flavour into his Test game but in a fine show of irony his T20 game continues to confound. This 10-year veteran of the IPL has crossed 400 runs in a season four times. In an effort to do something similar, he instigated a little shake-up inside Lucknow Super Giants.
"Well, Rishabh was keen to bat [No.] 3 this year so we afforded him that opportunity," LSG director of cricket Tom Moody said after his team lost to Chennai Super Kings on Sunday. Experts have previously suggested the gains Pant might make batting up the order. The fields would mirror Test cricket, in the sense that if he got to bat inside the first six overs, there won't be too many boundary riders, he'd get value for his shots and be on his way.
In eight of his 11 innings this year, Pant has batted at No. 3 or higher. But a return of 189 runs at a strike rate of 127 hasn't been ideal. Especially considering he had pushed Nicholas Pooran, who was LSG's No. 3 in 2025 when he scored 524 runs at a strike rate of 196, off his preferred spot. Pooran has struggled this IPL, scoring 184 runs at an average of 16.72 and a strike rate of 124.32. Moody revealed another reason for those numbers.
"Nicky P came into the tournament with a sore wrist that needed some sort of management in the first week or two," he said. "Generally around the world in T20 cricket, Nicky P bats anywhere from [Nos.] 3 to 5 and he's been effective in all those roles. So I think for him, his season started slowly [was] more to do with his preparation and also the fact that he had a bit of a wrist injury. So we've managed that, he's fine now."
On ESPNcricinfo's Time Out show, Ambati Rayudu, who has had considerable success as a middle-order batter in the IPL, said: "Pant's four-hitting has been quite questionable. He is not clear as to where he can get a boundary off, which gap, which area. As a middle-order batter, you should have at least four areas that you know you can score boundaries easily. Other than that, only if you have one area or two areas, you're always waiting for that ball. When you don't get it, you don't have many options other than clear the field. And you don't want to clear the field and get out at that point in time. And that is where I feel he is getting stuck. He needs to really work on [the four-hitting] side of his T20 game."
When asked if the weight of being captain, or the weight of being the marquee Indian player in the side is bringing Pant down, Moody replied, "I can't speak for him about how he's feeling about the expectation. I think every player, particularly [high] profile player, has pressure coming into the IPL.
"It is the biggest tournament in the world so whether it's Rishabh Pant or anyone that's either captain or a senior player in the side that has got decorated careers at that point, they're under pressure and that's the beauty of the IPL. It's whether you can embrace that pressure and rise or you find it difficult to get traction."
LSG have managed only three wins in 11 matches, with their batting letting them down. "Particularly our middle order hasn't fired," Moody said, without pointing fingers at any single player. "[They haven't shown] the consistency that's required to have that success on a consistent basis." LSG's numbers 4 to 8 have the lowest average (20.66) of all teams this season and the lowest strike rate (128.13) as well.
Moody also highlighted just how much losing Wanindu Hasaranga for the entire season impacted their performance, and explained why they bid for Josh Inglis at the auction, even though it was well known he would miss half of IPL 2026 due to his wedding.
"Well, Josh Inglis we knew was going to be missing, but we felt, and we saw it tonight, that he was too important a player not to pick up at the auction regardless of his availability this year from a long-term point of view," Moody said, "Hasaranga is more of a significant miss for us because he was a really important key to the puzzle of how we were trying to stack up as a side, having that point of difference with a mystery-type spinner that's got a great international record, a lot to prove in this tournament as well. And he just offers that little bit of depth and security at number 8, in someone that's more than capable of playing a role there.
"So he was probably a bigger miss for the balance of the side. We've been battling with that balance ever since, and what hasn't helped is obviously our top order and our batting hasn't fired, so we're exposed down the back end of the innings."