If you are a Bollywood fan, chances are you have watched Aamir Khan starrer Ghajini. In the film, his character suffers from short-term memory loss and keeps forgetting key details. To stay focused on his mission, he writes notes and tattoos reminders on his body.
We’re not suggesting Rishabh Pant go that far now, but a gentle reminder wouldn’t hurt. Maybe not a full-on full-body tattoo like Ghajini, but even a small one that says “use more spin” might do the trick.
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Because what happened against the Punjab kings in Mullanpur everyone was scratching their heads.
IS PANT FORGETTING HIS MAIN PAGE?
He raised a few eyebrows as the team sheet fell. Lucknow Super Giants have parked Digvesh Rathi on the bench, a bit like saving your best move for later and then forgetting to use it. It might have been the threat of Prabhsimran Singh and Shreyas Iyer, but Rathi had already dismissed Priyansh Arya in the previous meeting. And when Cooper Connolly faced him for the first time, it felt like a match just waiting to happen.
Instead, the call went to M. Siddharth, the left-arm spinner who once caught Virat Kohli at Chinnaswamy. But before it could matter, the Punjab Kings had already stepped on the gas pedal. Priyansh and Connolly battled it out for 63 in the over and just like that LSG were chasing the game.
And this is where it got interesting. Or confusing. Or both.
No rotation in power play. Not even a teaser. The plan seemed to be pace, pace and more pace as Punjab happily cashed in.
Spin finally appeared in the seventh over. But not Siddharth. Ayush Badoni gave the nod instead. Badoni now has 17 wickets from 102 T20s, not exactly ‘break the glass in an emergency’ numbers. Result? 14 runs, momentum intact.
Siddharth finally rolled his arm in the eighth. He went for 10 runs, including a boundary. Honestly, in the midst of that storm, it felt decent, comforting. The kind where you think, okay, maybe this is the way back.
Except for the plot twist.
Spin disappeared again. Badoni flipped just that one. The pace returned and the next three overs gave away 46 runs. At this point, Punjab were not just ahead, they were having fun.
Then came another spin of the wheel. Rishabh Pant returned to the spin but this time it was Aiden Markram. And what followed felt less like a tactical call and more like courage.
Markram’s over was 32 runs. Five sixes. Yes, five. In one over. The kind of typo that makes score sheets look like typos.
Through it all, Siddharth was mostly a spectator. Which only added to the head scratching.
It really felt like Ghajini at times. Plan made, forgotten, restarted, then forgotten again. The only difference? No “use your main spinner” tattoo.
Unsurprisingly, it got attention. Ravichandran Ashwin questioned the call-up calls and Anil Kumble echoed similar concerns. Because when the game keeps giving you the same obvious answer, it’s bad luck to miss it once. His missing repeatedly begins to look like a pattern.
“There’s too much talk about head-to-head matches. When he’s left-handed, you can’t bowl a left-arm spinner. Siddharth bowled exceptionally well. These matches play a big role in this decision. Ayush Badoni bowled one. But sometimes you have to look at the ability and quality of the bowler.”
“Siddharth did well as a power bowler for LSG. He bowled a good spell of three overs and failed to complete his quota,” Kumble said.
Funnily enough, Siddharth picked off the dangerous Priyansh with the second ball of his second over and then also accounted for Nehal Wadhera finishing with figures of 2 for 35 in his three overs.
So it was definitely a wasted trick.
DRS HOWLER
Then there was a moment before the chaos could even heat up.
Lucknow Super Giants were actually on top. Prabhsimran Singh came back for a duck, the energy was high and Cooper Connolly walked in and looked, shall we say, not quite settled at four.
Enter Mohsin Khan with the right “look at it” delivery.
It slammed into Connolly’s pads and Mohsin was instantly in full attraction mode. Not the casual “might be off” type, this was the confident “skip, we’re missing something here.” At first glance it looked like it might slide down the leg but Mohsin held on and tried to convince Rishabh Pant.
Pants? Unconvinced. No review. Go ahead.
And then repetition.
Three reds.
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Not even one. Not two. Three. The kind you wish DRS came with a rewind button for decisions already made. Right call 50-50 yes. But also one where you’re rolling the dice because the worst case scenario is just “referee call, check saved, no harm”.
“Even if you think there’s a 30 percent chance it’s going to work out, you’ve got to take that opportunity. It was a huge opportunity and it ended up costing them 80 runs,” Mitch McCleneghan said.
It was certainly a night Pant wished he could be Ghajini for a while, just so he could forget what happened during the match.
But there were some massive mistakes from the Lucknow captain and his side ended up paying heavily with another loss.
– The end
Issued by:
Debodinna Chakraborty
Published on:
20 Apr 2026 07:47 IST
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