Pant goes the other way – what's the rationale?
Whether his demotion to No. 7 was down to his own poor form, or an opponent-specific tactic, it has raised more questions than answers
Karthik Krishnaswamy22-Apr-20255:51
Knight on Pant batting at No. 7: It is ‘bizarre’
What were Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) thinking, on Tuesday night against Delhi Capitals (DC), when they pushed Rishabh Pant so far down the order that he batted outside the top six for the first time in the IPL since his debut season in 2016? What was Pant’s role in making this decision, as LSG’s captain?In a short, post-match interview with the broadcaster after LSG had lost the IPL 2025 match by eight wickets in Lucknow, Pant’s explanation was a terse one: “[The] idea was to capitalise. We sent [Abdul] Samad to capitalise on a wicket like that, but after that [David] Miller came in, and we just really got stuck in the wicket, but eventually these are the things we’ve got to figure out and try to find our best combination going forward.”That statement calls for a little bit of unpacking. First, it was Samad who walked in at No. 4, Pant’s usual position, when LSG lost their second wicket in the 12th over. Perhaps what Pant meant by “capitalise” was that LSG were looking for quick runs, and felt that Samad – who had scored 20 off 11 balls and an unbeaten 30 off 10 in LSG’s last two games – could provide them some of those at that stage.Related
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There were signs already that this was an old-ball pitch, with the extent of reverse swing and grip for slower balls increasing as LSG’s innings progressed. With that in mind, LSG may have been looking to send Samad in when there was still a good chance of the ball coming on to the bat.The move didn’t come off on the day, with Samad caught and bowled by Mukesh Kumar for two off eight balls. Pant didn’t come out at the fall of Samad’s wicket either, or at the fall of the next wicket later in the same over, the 14th of LSG’s innings, when Mukesh bowled Mitchell Marsh with a yorker.David Miller walked in at No. 5, and he was followed to the crease by Ayush Badoni, who came off the substitutes’ bench for the second match running. It was also the second match in a row where LSG had used a batter as their Impact Player even though they batted first. Typically, teams name a batting-heavy starting XI if they bat first and replace one of their batters with a bowler.Badoni had come off the bench to score a crucial 34-ball 50 in LSG’s previous game against Rajasthan Royals (RR). In that game, he batted at No. 5 when LSG lost their third wicket – of Pant – in their eighth over. LSG may have felt then that they needed someone to come in and steady their innings and give their end-overs hitters more favourable entry points.In this match, Badoni came in with just six overs remaining. As it happened, he made a strong contribution, his 21-ball 36 giving LSG a bit of impetus at the death even as Miller – who made an unbeaten 14 off 15 balls – struggled at the other end.With the Miller-Badoni partnership stretching into the final over, Pant finally came to the crease with just two balls remaining. He tried to manufacture boundaries off both balls, but didn’t put bat to ball against either, with Mukesh bowling him as he attempted a reverse-scoop off the final ball.Pant has endured a difficult IPL 2025, and came into Tuesday’s game having scored just 106 runs in 108 balls across seven innings. This, perhaps, may have led him to demote himself – if he took the decision – behind batters in better form.His long-time Test-match team-mate Cheteshwar Pujara, however, was having none of it. “I genuinely don’t know what the thought process was,” he said on ESPNcricinfo’s TimeOut. “There’s no doubt he should be batting up the order. He’s trying to do what MS Dhoni does, but he’s nowhere near [Dhoni’s age].5:50
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“I still feel he’s someone who should be batting in the middle overs, between [overs] six and 15. He’s not a finisher, and he shouldn’t be doing the job of a finisher.”Pujara’s co-panelist Nick Knight, the former England opener, felt he could accept the reasons for the move, but didn’t like the optics.”I’ve not really a problem with Badoni batting at four-five,” Knight said. “I see some rationale in that, because I think he’s playing well, and I think he’s more likely to score runs than Rishabh Pant. There’s the problem. Samad you could probably say the same, he’s more likely to score runs than Rishabh Pant. David Miller, you could say the same.”When you look at the decision-making, perhaps in rationale it makes some sense. Where I don’t like it at all is it just doesn’t look very good. There is your captain, sliding, going backwards in the batting order when you really need him to step up. He’s the one that’s going to be standing up and talking in front of your team, he’s the one who’s leading you out there. He’s your leader, and it just doesn’t look great when the leader is going the other way.”From that perspective that’s my problem, because I would agree – Badoni is probably more likely to score runs, etc etc. It doesn’t look right.”A second-order glance at Pant’s IPL 2025 numbers throws up a more specific reason for his demotion: a tactical retreat against spin. Coming into Tuesday’s game, he had struggled against both styles of bowling, but while he had managed a strike rate of 117.46 against pace, he had gone at just 71.11 against spin.2:29
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This pattern had held true even during his one sizeable innings of the season, a 49-ball 63 against Chennai Super Kings (CSK). In that innings, he had scored 18 off 23 balls against the spinners and 45 off 26 against the faster bowlers. The bulk of the damage he had done against the quicks had come late in LSG’s innings. Batting on 40 off 39 at the start of the 18th over, Pant had hit three sixes in his next ten balls, off the pace of Matheesha Pathirana and Khaleel Ahmed.And so, like a number of batters have done before him in the IPL – including fellow keeper-batters Dinesh Karthik and Dhoni – Pant on Tuesday may have been looking to hold himself back with match-ups in mind, with DC still having two overs of Kuldeep Yadav left when Badoni joined Miller. That Pant ended up getting to face just two balls wasn’t in his control; the partnership between Miller and Badoni ended up consuming 34 balls.For all that, though, there’s one major difference between the cases of Karthik or Dhoni for a delayed entry point and that of Pant. Karthik and Dhoni have been finishers for most of their T20 careers, and for large parts of those careers were deemed to be pace-hitting specialists. Pant has mostly batted through the middle overs, and for much of his career has been a brilliant, unconventional hitter of spin.Of late, though, his output against spin has dwindled. Pant had strike rates of 147 or more against that style of bowling in each of his first four IPL seasons. Since 2020, he has gone at sub-120 strike rates in four out of five seasons, including the current one.Pant is just 27, though, and may yet have time on his side to reverse this downturn against spin; Karthik and Dhoni were in their mid-to-late 30s by the time they became pigeonholed as pace-hitters. It’s unlikely Pant sees himself in the finisher’s role in the long term anyway, given the damage his style of play – involving manipulation of fields and hitting the ball in unusual areas – can cause through the middle overs.A top-order role, in fact, is perhaps better suited to Pant’s strengths if he’s looking to avoid a confrontation with spin, or to face it on slightly easier terms, with powerplay field restrictions on his side. But with LSG boasting one of the most in-form opening partnerships of IPL 2025 in Marsh and Aiden Markram, and with their No. 3 Nicholas Pooran in exceptional form and sitting second on the Orange Cap standings, there perhaps isn’t a top-order slot for Pant to occupy without causing what he and the team management may feel is unnecessary disruption.Rishabh Pant came in at No. 7, and was bowled second ball•Associated PressSo the move down to a finisher’s role may be an entirely temporary one tailored to the circumstances LSG and Pant are currently in. It may even just be opponent-specific. In this match against DC, Pant may have felt he was likelier to contribute meaningfully if he avoided a showdown with one of the tournament’s best spinners in Kuldeep. It’s instructive that the one other time he demoted himself in this manner – in LSG’s match against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on April 8, when he eventually didn’t bat at all – was against another of the IPL’s better spin-bowling teams.There may have been enough reasons, then, for Pant to have held himself back as he did on Tuesday, but one puzzling question still remains: why use Badoni as Impact sub when he could have been part of the starting XI, and allowed LSG to bring in a bowler later in the game? This question has carried a particular sense of urgency in LSG’s last two games, when their bench has included the exciting, 150kph-breaching Mayank Yadav, who is nearing a highly anticipated return from back and toe injuries that have kept him out of action since October 2024.The answer, perhaps, is that LSG don’t feel Mayank is as yet fit to bowl his full four-over quota, and that they have started their last two games with a five-bowler XI with the idea of potentially bringing Mayank on for a one- or two-over burst if they got through the first half of their match without needing to bolster their batting. That, however, didn’t happen either against RR or DC.