Lucknow Super Giants captain Rishabh Pant is expected to bat at number three in the potentially aborted IPL season starting March 28.
The stakes are high for Pant, who heads into his second season as LSG captain, with the franchise grossed a record Rs 27 crore for his services at the 2025 mega auction.
After a disappointing season last year, a successful season as both the leader and top batsman could make him part of India’s T20 plans going forward.
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Across formats, Pant is just an integral member of the Indian Test side and is also the back-up wicketkeeper to KL Rahul in ODIs.
The 28-year-old lost his place in the T20 squad following India’s triumph in the 2024 World Cup and would have to do something special to make a comeback, given that Sanju Samson and Ishan Kishan have themselves been automatically selected on the sheer weight of their recent performances.
Hence, the upcoming IPL is not just about delivering at an exorbitant price; it’s also about staying relevant in the shortest format.
Pant batted prominently at number four last season before making a proper run at number three at the end of the season when it was too late to turn LSG’s fortunes around.
Nicholas Pooran will move down the order to make way for Pant at numbers four, five and six, with them being used as floating positions.
The team had a camp in Chennai and are currently going through the paces at their home ground in Lucknow ahead of their opening game against Delhi Capitals on April 1.
The support staff led by Justin Langer and Pant are on the same page when it comes to their leader’s batting position.
“It is clear to both the team management and Pant that his game is best suited at number three. This season, the top order is locked with Aiden, Marsh and Pant. The middle order is flexible and the players will be floating according to the game situation,” an IPL source told PTI.
Pant batted at an astonishing rate of 133.17 last year and 118 not out of his 269 runs came in just one innings.
LSG’s middle order consists of Pooran, Ayush Badoni, Abdul Samad and Shabaz Ahmed.
Bowling was LSG’s weakest link last season as pacers including Mayank Yadav and Mohsin Khan were unavailable due to injuries. Other pace options included Avesh Khan and Anrich Nortje, who is another injury-prone fast bowler.
“The batting is settled. The bowling line-up looks much better than last year but the combination is yet to be fine-tuned. Mayank is fit but needs to bowl a lot more in the nets. Let’s hope he repays the faith the team has shown in him over the last four-five years,” the source added.
Former South Africa captain Faf du Plessis has picked Pant as the player who will be under the most pressure in this IPL.
“For me, Rishabh Pant is probably the player in the IPL who is under the most pressure this season. Some guys thrive under the pressure of the price tag and some guys don’t. I think last season was really tough for him. The team struggled and he also struggled for runs the way he batted.”
“So there’s all that pressure coming into the season along with the expectation of what the team is going to do. How do they want to maximize their bowling with the batting team?”
“Because there is pressure on your captain, scoring runs is your first job. So if he scores runs as a captain, it takes the pressure off in the first instance. But then there is the second instance which is the overall performance of the team. And last year both those things had big red crosses against each other,” Du Plessis told Jio Star.
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Issued by:
Amar Panicker
Published on:
March 22, 2026 1:59 PM IST
