Rishabh Pant’s decision to shoot division experts number 7 brings questions to the agenda

On a night when Delhi Capitals captain Axar Patel made a proper statement with his bowling spell against the most dangerous opening pair of IPL 2025, his Lucknow Super Giants counterpart did not even come out to bat and sent an Impact Player instead.

Axar Patel bowled 3 out of his 4 overs in the Powerplay against Aiden Markram and Mitchell Marsh, who were on the rampage and gave away just 19 runs. Axar finished with figures of 0 for 29 off 4 overs and did his bit to control the LSG innings despite a strong opening stand.

Rishabh Pant’s decision to bat at No.7 did not sit well with former Australia all-rounder Shane Watson. Ambati Rayudu was similarly puzzled and said Pant should have batted ahead of Samad.

At one point, LSG were on course for a much bigger total after Aiden Markram and Mitchell Marsh laid down a strong platform. Lucknow lost Markram for 52 with the team at 87 for 1 at the end of 10 overs. Two overs later, Nicholas Pooran fell to Mitchell Starc.

In a bizarre move, LSG sent Abdul Samad, David Miller and Ayush Badoni ahead of Pant, the most expensive player in IPL auction history. The LSG innings stuttered and stumbled after the Markram dismissal, and Pant was nowhere to be seen.

Ayush Badoni played a good hand and smashed 36 off 21, easily the best LSG batter on Tuesday. Miller struggled with an unbeaten 14 off 15 balls.

Rishabh Pant eventually came out to bat with just two balls left and got out without scoring.

Pant has been impressive as captain but has had a torrid time with the bat, managing just 106 runs from 9 matches at a strike-rate of 98.15.