Pant faces defining IPL season at LSG with 27 crore price tag and India recall on the line
There is no hiding for Rishabh Pant this season. The 27 crore price tag follows him everywhere. It followed him through a 2025 campaign where LSG finished seventh with six wins and eight losses. It followed him through a T20 World Cup where he was not selected. And it will follow him when Lucknow open their IPL 2026 campaign next week.
Faf du Plessis put it bluntly this week: Pant will be the player under the most pressure in this year's tournament. It is hard to argue with that.
The numbers from 2025 do not help
Pant scored 269 runs in 14 matches last season at an average of 24.45 and a strike rate of 133.16. Those are not numbers that justify being the highest-paid player in the league's history. He saved his best for the final match, an unbeaten 118 off 61 balls that arrived after LSG's season was already done, a performance that felt more like a reminder of what he could do than a contribution that mattered in the standings.
The captaincy weighed on him too. LSG's middle order never settled, their bowling lacked consistency, and Pant could not drag the side into the playoffs through individual brilliance alone. Justin Langer, who coaches LSG, has said Pant has been "firing" in the nets ahead of the new season, but net form and match form are different conversations entirely.
India's white-ball door is closing
Pant has been out of India's T20I squad since mid-2024. The selectors looked elsewhere for the T20 World Cup, co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka, earlier this month and did not regret it. Sanju Samson won the Player of the Tournament award. Ishan Kishan forced his way back into the picture. The wicketkeeper spot that once felt like Pant's birthright is now genuinely contested.
A strong IPL would change the conversation. Not just runs, but the kind of performances that remind the selectors why they backed him for so long. Pant at his best is one of the most destructive batters in T20 cricket. The question is whether the weight of everything around him lets that player surface consistently.
What LSG need from their captain
Lucknow's squad has quality. They signed Gudakesh Motie as a replacement for the injured Wanindu Hasaranga, and their batting lineup on paper can compete with anyone. But twice running they have missed the playoffs, and at some point the pattern has to break.
Pant does not just need to score runs. He needs to set the tone, absorb the pressure of leading from the front, and prove that 27 crore was an investment in the future and not just auction fever. The IPL opens on March 28 when RCB host SRH in Bengaluru. LSG's first match is not far behind.
