Captain Rishabh Pant of the Lucknow Super Giants was clearly having a tense talk with mentor Zaheer Khan during the clash between the two franchises. Anil Kumble claimed Rishabh had been “wronged” when he batted at seven instead of his usual position, where he faced only two balls. After Nicholas Pooran’s wicket in the 12th over, Lucknow were looking strong at 99/2, and everyone thought Pant would come out at number 4. Instead, the left-handed Samad took Pooran’s place, which left a lot of people baffled. Some thought this was done in order to maintain the right-left batting combination, but they replaced a left-handed Pooran with a right-handed Samad.
“It’s fair enough to want to bat under no pressure by coming in late, but this was far too late,” Kumble expressed his views while analyzing on Star Sports. “Rishabh’s frustration is evident; he must have felt let down. Perhaps he wanted to come up a little bit higher, but we cannot say if that was his call or made by coach Justin Langer or Zaheer Khan.”
After the match, Pant appeared almost apologetic when asked for an explanation as to why he batted at No. 7, especially when you consider that Samad registered only two runs in an eight-wicket loss to Delhi. Lucknow batted first to post just 159 for 6, with Pant not offering any contribution after arriving at the end.
“We wanted to cash in on the pitch and send Samad out. After that, (David) Miller came in and we just got stuck. We need to figure it out going forward,” Pant said. It toss went their way as it was an advantage chasing on that pitch, he added. Lucknow next plan to take on the Mumbai Indians on Sunday, April 27, at the Mumbai home ground.
