Ambati Rayudu, a former Indian cricketer, has offered some unreserved advice to Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) captain Rishabh Pant. Rayudu says Pant really needed to own up to his responsibility as a leader if the LSG wanted to have any hope of improving their performance for IPL 2025. He specifically pointed out that Pant should be batting higher up the order rather than waiting until the very end as he did in their recent game against Delhi Capitals.
Pant grabbed the seventh slot in that game; needless to say, Badoni, Miller, and Samad had their turns before him. He faced just two balls at the end and ended up with a duck, complementing his miserable total of just 106 runs in eight innings. Fans couldn’t hold back from yelling when this decision turned out to be costly because LSG lost by eight wickets, which should be a cue for any captain, for that matter.
When a commentator on Star Sports immediately after the match asked Rayudu his take on the incident, he said: “Pant really needs to take control of the decisions being made at LSG. He needs to come up the order. There can’t be any more excuses. He’s the captain, and as we all know, it’s a captain’s sport.” He went on to suggest that the team should make some changes, perhaps with Mayank Yadav coming in. “You could see that Pant was pretty tense out there,” Rayudu noted.
Sure, LSG is not faring as poorly on the table as some other teams this season-they now sit at fifth place-then again, they are just a couple of wins away from putting their best foot ahead for making a keen playoff chase. All that added to the pressure on Pant, given his heavy price tag and the erstwhile relationship of team owner Sanjiv Goenka with former captain KL Rahul. All of these have surely shone a greater spotlight on the team, along with any headaches they could be having behind the scenes.
Also in that game against Delhi was this one instance where Pant’s longer-than-usual chat with team mentor Zaheer Khan was put on air as he made his way to bat. The clip had gone viral. “That’s something Pant has really to take charge of,” Rayudu had to comment. “He should make decisions himself. When these sorts of interactions happen on-screen, it might not leave the best impression. Ideally, you want to keep all discussions private. No one wants to air their dirty laundry in public.”
Next for LSG is a match on Sunday at the Wankhede Stadium against the Mumbai Indians, which should be interesting to see in terms of how Pant handles the game with possible changes in batting positioning and general decision-making.
