Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) captain Rishabh Pant has been affected the burden of the 'most expensive IPL player' tag. Pant has just one fifty and 10 forgettable outings with the bat this season. His form is one of the reasons for LSG slumping as they are over-dependent on their top-order featuring overseas batters. Reacting to Pant's poor run in the season, former Indian opener Virender Sehwag wants Pant to watch his old videos of batting in the IPL. He feels injury has had an effect on him and he needs to talk to someone, maybe his idol, Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni.
"According to me, he should watch videos of himself batting when he used to make runs in the IPL. You get confidence from watching that, you remember how you used to go about your innings. Sometimes what happens is that you deviate from your routine. This is a different Rishabh Pant we are seeing after his injury," Sehwag said on Cricbuzz.
"He has a phone. He can pick that up and call whomever he wants. If he feels that mentally he is not thinking right, then there are so many cricketers that can help him. If he considers Dhoni as his role model, then he should talk to him," the 46-year-old added.
So far, Pant is the worst batter in the LSG lineup in terms of runs scored. He has 128 runs from 10 innings at an average of 12.80, including one half-century. His strike rate has dropped to 99.22. Since the half-century against CSK in the losing cause, he has registered scores of 3, 0, 4 and 18.
Pant's batting numbers in last season
While Sehwag said that Pant has been affected by the injury, it wasn't the case in the previous season when he returned for Delhi Capitals (DC) after recovering from the unfortunate car accident. He made it to India's T20 World Cup 2024 squad on the basis of his IPL form. The 27-year-old has scored 446 runs from 13 innings at an average of 40.54, including three half-centuries. His strike rate in the previous season was 155.40.
LSG's playoff chances look bleak
After the 37-run defeat to Punjab Kings (PBKS) in a high-scoring match at Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, Dharamsala, LSG's road to playoffs is tough. Currently, they are seventh on the points table with six losses from 11 games. Even if they win their remaining matches, they will depend on the net run rate (NRR) of other teams to have a chance to make it to the top four. Their NRR has fallen to a negative 0.469.