Inside Sourav Ganguly’s plan to revive Rishabh Pant’s IPL career

Sourav Ganguly believes he can give Rishabh Pant’s IPL career a breath of fresh air. The newly appointed head coach of Delhi Capitals has a pretty simple plan for the struggling wicketkeeper batsman: take him back into the middle order, give him a defined role and give him time and space to rediscover the player who once made Delhi one of the most dangerous teams in the IPL.

It is a significant change from the direction Pant wanted his Indian Premier League career to take.

Pant started his IPL career as a middle order batsman and played most of his cricket for Delhi Capitals in this role. But as his game evolved, so did his mindset. Pant believed that his best position in T20 cricket was at the top of the order where he could face more deliveries and have more control over the innings.

This mindset eventually contributed to his exit from Delhi after the 2024 season. Lucknow Super Giants invested heavily in the idea, buying Pant for Rs 27 crore in the IPL auction, making him the most expensive player in the tournament’s history at the time.

Two seasons later, the experiment ended with Pant where it began.

Pant never quite found a settled role in the LSG batting order. The franchise has struggled to find the right fit for him, and he has struggled to produce the kind of consistency expected of a record-breaking player. After two tough seasons, Pant was traded back to the Delhi Capitals for a significantly lower value.

However, Ganguly sees the return as an opportunity to simplify things.

“We needed a middle-order batsman and Pant fits that perfectly. He has been with us and played well for us. Next year when he comes back, I think he will use the time, space and matches to become a better player,” Ganguly said in a video posted by Delhi Capitals on their official YouTube channel.

WHAT IS GANGULY’S PLAN FOR PANT?

Ganguly wants to bring Pant back to the environment where he became one of the most destructive middle-order batsmen in the IPL. A No. 4 or No. 5 role would give him a familiar position while allowing Delhi to utilize his ability to change the course of an innings without asking him to shoulder the responsibility of opening the batting.

“You know he enjoys batting at the Feroz Shah Kotla (Arun Jaitley Stadium) in Delhi and hopefully we will see the best of Pant for the Delhi jersey in the coming years,” Ganguly added.

Pant’s return to Delhi is also about more than a change of franchise. His career has taken a complicated turn since establishing himself as one of the most exciting young batsmen in India.

A life-threatening car accident in December 2022 ruled him out of cricket for over a year, followed by a lengthy rehabilitation. He returned to competitive cricket in 2024, regaining his place in the Indian T20I and Test teams and eventually taking a leadership role with the national side.

But the IPL was a different story.

Pant’s last season in Delhi before moving to Lucknow had already shown signs of a player struggling to find his best version. The decision to leave and accept another role at LSG was to provide a fresh start. Instead, the change of scenery brought two seasons in which neither his bat nor his place in the order really settled.

Therefore, Ganguly’s plan is intentionally less complicated. Rather than asking Pant to re-emerge, Delhi want to bring him back to what worked.

WHAT IS PANT’S MIDDLE ROW RECORD?

The numbers from Pant’s first spell in Delhi explain why the franchise is willing to try this route again. He played 103 matches in the middle order, batting at Nos. 4 and 5, and scored 2,941 runs at a strike rate of 145.

Ganguly knows there is more to coaching Pant than just deciding where he bats. The former India captain, who also heads the Cricket Association of Bengal, moves into his first head coaching role in Delhi after previously serving as director of cricket for the franchise and as head coach of their South African club Pretoria Capitals.

He said his approach would be based on understanding the players rather than imposing his own methods.

“It’s not the same as a player. It’s a bit different, you have to understand things, you have to be relaxed. You still have to find a way to get the best out of players and work with players because players are different,” Ganguly said.

“It’s not about you batting or you bowling anymore. It’s about someone else batting or bowling or winning cricket matches. So it’s important that you get in sync with them and understand what they want and how they can improve.”

This could be particularly important in Pant’s case. The player returning to Delhi is not the same one who left the franchise. His two seasons in Lucknow and poor international form contributed to checking his game.

Ganguly’s answer is to make it more clear to him.

Pant will return to a ground where he has produced some of his best IPL innings, a dressing room he is familiar with and potentially a batting position he has already shown he can thrive in.

Delhi finished sixth last season and have only reached the IPL final once, in 2020. So Ganguly isn’t bringing Pant back into the middle order just out of nostalgia. He believes a combination of a settled role and a talented squad can help Delhi challenge again.

“It’s a good team with KL Rahul, Axar Patel, Rishabh Pant, Mitchell Starc, Lungi Ngidi, David Miller, Tristan Stubbs, it’s a pretty strong team and I hope we play our best and I hope they all understand how good they are and go and express themselves,” he said.

“The motivation is to get Delhi to the top.

For Pant, it could mean a return to the basics of what made him so effective. Wanted to become an opener, he left Delhi for a record price and spent two seasons trying to execute a new plan.

Now Ganguly has a different idea. Put Pant back in the middle order, give him responsibility without overburdening him and see if a familiar role can bring back the player Delhi knows so well.

After two tough years in Lucknow, Pant is back in Delhi. Ganguly’s job this time is to make sure he knows exactly where he belongs.

– The end