Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) captain Rishabh Pant will bat at number three in what could be a very important IPL season for him, starting March 28.
The stakes are high for Pant in his second year as LSG skipper. The team paid a record Rs 27 crore for him in the 2025 mega auction. After a disappointing last season, a strong performance as leader and top-order batter could help him return to India’s T20 plans.
Pant is a regular in India’s Test side and a backup wicketkeeper to KL Rahul in ODIs. But he lost his place in the T20 team after India’s 2024 World Cup win. Sanju Samson and Ishan Kishan have made strong cases with their recent form. So, IPL 2026 is not just about justifying his huge price tag – it’s also about staying in the mix for T20 cricket.
Pant mostly batted at number four last season. He later pushed himself to number three towards the end, but it was too late to change LSG’s fortunes.
This season, Nicholas Pooran will move down the order to make space for Pant at No. 3. Positions 4, 5, and 6 will be flexible and change based on the match situation.
The team had a camp in Chennai and is now training at their home ground in Lucknow ahead of their opener against Delhi Capitals on April 1.
Head coach Justin Langer and the support staff are on the same page as Pant about his batting position.
‘It is clear to the team management as well as Pant that his game is best suited for number three. This season the top-order is locked in with Aiden, Marsh and Pant. The middle-order is flexible and players will be floated as per the game situation,’ an IPL source told PTI.
Pant had an underwhelming season last year. He scored 269 runs at a strike rate of 133.17. Out of those runs, 118 not out came in just one innings.
The LSG middle-order includes Pooran, Ayush Badoni, Abdul Samad, and Shabaz Ahmed.
LSG’s bowling was their biggest problem in IPL 2025. Pacers like Mayank Yadav and Mohsin Khan were out with injuries for long periods. Other options included Avesh Khan and injury-prone Anrich Nortje.
‘The batting is settled. The bowling group looks a lot better than last year but combinations are yet to be worked. Mayank is fit but needs to bowl a lot more in the nets. Hopefully he will repay the faith the team has shown him over the past four to five years,’ the source added.
Former South Africa captain Faf du Plessis named Pant as the player under the biggest pressure in IPL 2026.
‘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.
‘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 maximize 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,’ Du Plessis told Jio Star.