Former Chennai Super Kings' star and current commentator Ambati Rayudu has urged Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) captain Rishabh Pant to stop making excuses and take ownership of his choices. Pant has been enduring a difficult period in the ongoing Indian Premier League 2025 (IPL 2025), struggling to make an impact with his batting.
The LSG skipper experienced his most disappointing outing of the season against Delhi Capitals (DC) in their IPL 2025 encounter at the Ekana cricket stadium on April 22, when he was dismissed without scoring off just two balls. In a surprising move during that match, the star wicketkeeper-batter relegated himself to the number seven batting position, sending Abdul Samad, David Miller, and Ayush Badoni to bat ahead of him. Ultimately, Lucknow Super Giants suffered an eight-wicket defeat, which resulted in them dropping to the fifth position on the IPL 2025 points table.
Ambati Rayudu criticises Rishabh Pant
Meanwhile, Rayudu wants Pant to take the ownership of the situation and take control of the decisions being made at the LSG team management. The former CSK's star feels LSG need to make few changes including bringing Pant's batting order.
"Pant really needs to take the control of the decisions that are being made at LSG. He needs to come up the order. He cannot give any more excuses. He is the captain and it is a captain’s sport. We all acknowledge that. Going forward, LSG need to make a few changes: maybe get Mayank Yadav in. Also Pant has to bat slightly higher. You are visibly quite tensed about the whole situation,” Rayudu said on Star Sports.
"I feel Pant really needs to take the onus on himself. He really needs to take the decisions on his own. Sometimes these visuals are not really good if you are a good team. Because you want everything to be closed doors. You want everything to be said indoors. And also you don’t want any dirty laundry to be washed outside," he added.
Across the eight innings he has played this season, Rishabh Pant has amassed just 106 runs, averaging a modest 13.25 with a strike rate of 96.36. His contributions with the bat include only a single half-century so far. Consequently, he has struggled to live up to the record-breaking Rs 27 Crore price tag that the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) invested in acquiring his services at the IPL 2025 mega-auction. The 27-year-old will set his sights on finding his mojo back when LSG will take on Hardik Panday-led Mumbai Indians (MI) in their IPL 2025 clash which is scheduled to be played on April 27.