NEW DELHI, May 29: Dashing keeper-batter Rishabh Pant was on Friday relieved of Lucknow Super Giants’ captaincy after a disastrous 2026 IPL season in which they finished last among 10 teams.
On May 14, the PTI had reported that Pant was set to lose captaincy, something which was reiterated by LSG’s Director of Cricket Tom Moody.
“Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) wish to formally announce that Rishabh Pant has requested to be relieved of his captaincy duties with the franchise, and the franchisee has accepted his request with immediate effect,” the franchise said in an official statement.
“Rishabh approached the franchisee with this request and we have respectfully accepted it,” Moody was quoted as saying in the media release.
“These decisions are never easy. We are grateful for everything Rishabh has brought to this dressing room as captain. Our focus now is on the collective rebuilding and restructuring to reach the best standards,” the former Australian all-rounder added.
It can be said with a degree of certainty after talking to those tracking developments that the 28-year-old Pant might not want to stay back merely as a player and could either be available for trading or released for auction.
As a batter, it turned out to be a woeful season in which he got only 312 runs in 14 innings.
As chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar pointed out, Pant should now look at being the best batter that he can be in Test cricket and then work his way up the white-ball ladder once again. It’s time for him to think beyond captaincy and care for the batter in him which can win matches for India.
Lucknow Super Giants were decent in their first two years when they made it to play-offs under KL Rahul’s captaincy and Gautam Gambhir’s mentorship. However, things started going downhill from the 2024 season, when Gambhir had left for KKR.
The passionate LSG owner Sanjiv Goenka’s public outburst on Rahul after a humiliating defeat set the alarm bells ringing. There was a general wariness that this particular franchise doesn’t give too much breathing space to its players.
Before the 2024 auction for the 2025 edition, it was known that Pant, inarguably the most sought-after player at the auction, will breach the Rs 25 crore mark and it was Goenka, who bought Pant for Rs 27 crore.
In a grand unveiling in Kolkata, Goenka declared that Pant is an investment for “15 years”, someone in whom he saw “in-born leader” and potentially the “best captain of IPL”.
The Justin Langer-Rishabh Pant duo was never on same page. To put it mildly, they were bad and if one has to be harsh, they were poor.
The absence of a steady Indian name in the coaching set-up (Bharat Arun isn’t one even though he is respected) did play an adverse role. It also didn’t help that by paying Rs 27 crore to Pant and retaining an injured and profligate Mayank Yadav for Rs 11 crore, Goenka and his think-tank had exhausted one third of their total purse.
It also didn’t help that Pant batted at different positions in the beginning and after failures, he started coming lower down the order.
The entry of Moody also complicated things and if one starts picking up nuggets about how LSG owners operate, people who have watched closely would say that their vote of confidence always rest with foreign coaches, especially the Australians.
But who decided that LSG would go with an all-Indian attack without any good foreign strike bowlers? Was it Langer or was it Pant? Or was it the owners?
The next thing is the choice of players and there the question arises about how did Himmat Singh make it to the playing XI and why wasn’t Ayush Badoni dropped at the onset? Why was Arshin Kulkarni played and why wasn’t Nicholas Pooran given a break after a few games?
The distinct lack of planning and homework also affected the execution which also speaks about how much Pant and Langer were out of sync.
The most telling picture was after the second last match in which LSG couldn’t even defend a total of 220. Partly, it was Pant’s batting at the death that cost them minimum 20 runs and then Vaihav Sooryavanshi struck like a tornado, smashing 93 off 38 balls.
Once the match was over, the owner and his close family members, including kids were inside the playing arena but not with Pant. The kids wanted to meet a slightly older 15-year-old chubby cheeked genius. At that point, you knew that LSG had moved on from Rishabh Pant emotionally. Professionally, only formality was left. (PTI)
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