Rishabh Pant has not been able to revive his own form or arrest Lucknow Super Giants’ slide late in the IPL 2025 season. The India wicketkeeper-batter has looked increasingly frustrated on the field and more clueless with the bat in the second half of the campaign. On Sunday in Dharamsala, Pant’s Lucknow Super Giants were comfortably outplayed by Punjab Kings in a one-sided fixture, hurting their chances of reaching the playoffs.
Lucknow Super Giants, who were comfortably placed in the top four, have now slipped to seventh spot after three successive defeats on the trot. Lucknow remain in contention to reach the playoffs, but they must win all their remaining games and hope other results fall in their favour to sneak through to the business end of the season.
Pant’s torrid run with the bat has made the task even harder for LSG. Without runs under his belt, Pant has been far from his usual chirpy, jovial self. The lack of confidence has been evident both in his batting and in the way he has marshalled the troops. In 11 matches, Pant has scored just 128 runs at a strike rate of less than 100.
Speaking to broadcasters JioStar, former Australia captain Aaron Finch suggested Pant should give up the wicketkeeper’s role and position himself closer to the thick of things in their remaining games this season. When asked about Pant’s captaincy, Finch highlighted how wicketkeeper-captains are finding it increasingly difficult to communicate with their bowlers, especially with the advent of the stop-clock rule and stricter enforcement of over-rate regulations. IPL 2025, PBKS vs LSG: Highlights
“It must be really difficult to captain a side when you’re the wicketkeeper. The communication between you and your bowlers – you probably get a couple of seconds. Obviously, there’s a lot of emphasis on the clock between overs, but you might have 10, 15 seconds to chat to your bowler between overs,” Finch said.
“So then it falls on Nicholas Pooran, who’s probably somewhere in front of the wicket, to then start relaying messages as well. That can be really difficult – to really commit to a plan – because the bowler’s thinking might change ball to ball, and so might Rishabh’s. You can see just how animated and frustrated he is right throughout,” he added.
According to the stop-clock rule, the fielding side must begin a new over within 60 seconds of the previous over’s conclusion. It was introduced in international cricket in 2024 and implemented in the IPL the same year. Notably, in 2022, the ICC introduced a regulation penalising fielding teams for slow over-rates, limiting them to only four fielders outside the 30-yard circle during the death overs.
LET NICHOLAS POORAN KEEP WICKETS: FINCH
Finch suggested Nicholas Pooran take over the gloves, allowing Pant to field at mid-on or mid-off to facilitate better communication with his bowlers.
“So, maybe it’s an opportunity where he says, ‘Right, Pooran, you just take the gloves for a game or two. I just need to get some rhythm, get some communication with my attack, so we can start to plan and manage our way through the twenties just that little bit better.’ Because the communication breakdown when you’re behind the stumps is really, really difficult.
“But the game’s changed a bit since then, I reckon. The game is so much faster now. One or two balls can swing the whole momentum of a game, so I think you need that constant communication with your bowler. Often Shreyas Iyer is at mid-off, Shubman Gill is at mid-on – there are guys there all the time,” Finch said.
On Sunday, LSG conceded 236 runs and fell short of the target by 37 runs. None of their bowlers were spared as Prabhsimran Singh led an onslaught against them in Dharamsala. Young Mayank Yadav, recently back from a long injury lay-off, conceded 60 runs in four overs, with four of LSG’s five bowlers going for over 10 runs per over. Pant appeared animated throughout the innings, making his frustration with the poor execution of bowling plans plain to see.
LSG will be hoping for a much-improved effort when they face table-toppers Lucknow Super Giants at home on May 9.
