Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: The Rs 27 crore price tag, Lucknow Super Giants’ failure to enter the playoffs in IPL 2025, and poor form with the bat — Rishabh Pant will hope to bury all ghosts of the 2025 season and start afresh when the 2026 edition kicks off. Lucknow Super Giants will begin their IPL 2026 campaign against Delhi Capitals on April 1 at the Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow.Will Pant be under any pressure?
Former South Africa captain Faf du Plessis believes that Lucknow Super Giants skipper Pant will be the player under the most pressure in the tournament.Pant became the most expensive player in the tournament’s history last year when LSG secured the wicketkeeper-batter for Rs 27 crore.However, his performances with the bat failed to justify his price tag. Although he scored a century, his overall campaign remained underwhelming, as the ton came when LSG were already out of the race for the playoffs.Pant scored just 269 runs in the 13 matches he played last season at a poor average of 24.45.“For me, Rishabh Pant is probably the player in the IPL who is under the most pressure this season. Some guys flourish under the price tag pressure, while some don’t. I think last season was a really tough one for him. The team struggled, and he also struggled with runs in the way that he batted,” Du Plessis told Jio Hotstar.“So, there is all that pressure coming into the season, along with the expectations of what the team is going to do. With a batting-heavy team, how are they going to maximise their bowling? Because there is pressure on your captain, scoring runs is your first job.“So, if he is scoring runs as a captain, it takes pressure off in the first instance. But then there is a second instance, which is the team performance overall. And last year, both of those things had big red crosses against them,” he said.
