The unravelling of LSG captain Rishabh Pant is a sad sight and he is now racing against the clock

But such is the nature of the cricketing beast that it is by numbers that he, like all other batters, will be measured. Especially in the 20-over game, those numbers are transposed to impact, to the influence one has on outcomes of matches.

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Viewed against that backdrop, Pant will be first to concede that he has been a singular letdown. He has not just let himself down time after time, but he has also let his teammates down. Having first represented the country in T20Is a year and a half before his Test debut, he is no longer on the national team’s radar. But curiously enough, he has also courted one failure after another in the IPL, the motherlode of the 20-over format to which he would appear the most natural fit.

Having barely resurrected a terrible season in 2025 with an unbeaten 118 in the last of his 14 innings (in a losing cause) which boosted his tally to 269 (average 24.45, strike-rate 133.17), the 28-year-old has had a woeful second season too with Lucknow Super Giants. Since a match-winning unbeaten 67 against Sunrisers Hyderabad two and a half weeks back, he has managed just 72 in his next five innings, including a forgettable three-ball duck on Wednesday against Rajasthan Royals which perfectly summed up why he is where he is in 20-over cricket currently.

Let’s try and deconstruct the Pant T20 meltdown which must be a major source of concern for him, sure, but also the LSG think-tank (India are insulated for now).

The situation called for patience, for smarts, for commonsense. Rajasthan were playing three seamers – Jofra Archer and Brijesh Sharma were the others – and it was imperative to keep wickets in hand during the Power Play because the required rate wasn’t very demanding. This wasn’t the kind of track that encouraged optimistic bravado. Maybe it was his ego, maybe it was too much (misplaced?) belief in himself. For whatever reason, Pant showed scant regard for the game situation and the conditions. Not the first time in recent memory and, unless he makes a very conscious effort, won’t be the last time either.

In his last six knocks, he has been at No. 3, which is perhaps the best slot for him because he can control the innings, whether he comes in off the second ball or after the Power Play when the field spreads out. With the two big guns immediately behind him – Aiden Markram and Nicholas Pooran – also equally in the wars, the temptation to rejig the batting order might be overwhelming. But Pant’s best returns have come at one-drop and for him to rediscover his scoring form, it’s a slot he must occupy for the rest of the season.

Maybe one is being too charitable, but perhaps, Pant is sometimes confused which stroke to play because he has so many at his disposal. True, he wouldn’t be Pant if he played only orthodox shots, but it won’t be the worst idea to bed himself in, give himself time to assess the pitch and the bowling, get a few runs under his belt and then express himself the way he wants to.

Clearly, the rub of the green is not with him, so why not take a step back and work his way among the runs? A ‘boring’ but high-performing Pant is preferable to an exciting but decidedly under-achieving Pant. Pant is not an 18-year-old with a long rope anymore. He is one of the senior statespersons in Indian cricket and it is non-negotiable that he begins to embrace that role.

He must stop being a victim of his own expectations in terms of entertaining and batting in fifth gear from the get-go. Especially when things aren’t going one’s way, as they haven’t for the last season and a half, it wouldn’t be the worst idea to dial down the aggression and build an innings, the quasi-old-fashioned way, and more so when the surface isn’t necessarily the best for ambitious stroke-production.

It won’t be out of place either to not get too greedy when confronted with a belter. Pant has often been guilty of trying to hit the ball too hard, which is why he loses shape so often. A six is a six, whether it just falls over the rope or goes into the second tier. Pant is blessed with timing to go with raw power; by forsaking the former in the singular quest for the latter, he is doing himself no favours whatsoever.

How does he get his confidence back? By smacking a few off the middle of the bat, by raising the bat a couple of times to acknowledge milestones. How does that come about? By spending time at the crease. There is no greater guarantee to scoring runs than being not dismissed.

Even otherwise, Pant has had an unfortunate tryst with cricketing injuries. Primed to make a comeback to the national 50-over side after a year and half against New Zealand this January, he was ruled out of the entire series with a right-sided strain and a muscle tear in the nets. This came less than six months after he broke his foot while attempting a reverse sweep against Chris Woakes in the Manchester Test.

Pant has largely been mind over matter – he came back out to bat with the fracture and made a half-century in the said Test. Now, he must prove to himself (and the rest will fall in line) that the T20 beast in him is still alive and kicking. For that, he must summon patience, nous, commonsense, confidence, prudence, practicality, and game-and-situational-awareness. None of them is beyond him. After all, resilience is his calling card.

In his first IPL season since his terrible car accident, he smashed 446 runs at a strike-rate of 155.40 in 2024. And in his first Test back in September that year, he lashed 109 off 128 against Bangladesh. How about an encore? Over to you, Rishabh Pant.

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