Rishabh Pant hasn’t had the last couple of years as fruitful as a result of an unsatisfactory show with the bat. He got odd good innings here and there, but he has failed to make any real impressions. India lost 3-1 in Australia, and he was part of that. India lost to New Zealand and South Africa at home, and he was part of that. On the Indian Premier League (IPL) front, things haven’t been great for him either.
He joined Lucknow Super Giants last year for a whopping ₹27 crore, but his performance as captain as well as a player left a lot to be desired. That the franchise finished seventh on the table made things worse for him.
Pant now appears to have been sidelined from ODIs and T20Is. Sanju Samson and Ishan Kishan have really increased their stock in the last couple of weeks. In the recently concluded T20 World Cup that India won this past Sunday, Samson was Player of the Tournament, while Kishan also piled on the runs in India’s thumping win.
In ODIs, KL Rahul has been India’s preferred wicket-keeper batsman of late. Injuries too have affected Pant. That means Test cricket and the IPL are all Pant has at the moment.
In this gloom, Pant has the backing of his head coach
Against that backdrop, the 2026 IPL could be a make-or-break season for the left-hander. The good thing is that the head coach at the franchise, Australian Justin Langer, has full faith in him. Langer believes Pant is a champion player, and champion players can’t be in the doldrums for long.
“He’ll be ready to go. He’s training at the moment. We’ve got a camp going on at the moment, so I’ll see him in a couple of days. He’s firing, and as I said, with all champions, they don’t stay down for long. His last game last year in the IPL, we saw how brilliant he can be, so that’s our expectation for him this year,” Langer told ESPNCricinfo.
The league kicks off on March 28; however, LSG will play their first match on April 1 at home against Delhi Capitals, Pant’s former IPL team. Pant recently spent some time with India great Yuvraj Singh in Mumbai to improve his game on all fronts. Hopefully, all his efforts to become relevant again will bear fruit soon.
