IPL 2025: Mid-Career Crisis for Rishab Pant?

You cannot keep Rishabh Pant out of the news.

In the run to the IPL 2025 season, the wicket-keeper cum left-handed swashbuckler was the talking point as he was the most expensive buy in the entire auction.

He was picked up by the Lucknow SuperGiants (LSG) for a bank-breaking Rs 27 crore. And the star, who had previously turned out for the Delhi Capitals, was also anointed the captain of LSG. So all eyes were on him going into the tournament.

And after 3 matches for LSG so far, all eyes are still on him. But this time with a lot of question marks hovering around. Both his captaincy and batting is under scrutiny. Pant has managed only 17 runs, including a duck in the tournament opener against Delhi Capitals. His struggles continued against Punjab Kings, where he was dismissed for just 2 runs Tuesday night. 

Images of LSG owner Sanjiv Goenka having an animated chat with Pant after the match are already the stuff of social media trolls and comments. LSG has lost to DC and PBKS, and its only victory so far has come against the Hyderabad franchise SRH. Pant’s only two-figue knock (15) came in that match. Pant’s batting, it may be recalled, was also the talking point during India’s Test trip to Australia (Cue: Sunil Gavaskar’s infamous ‘stupid, stupid, stupid’ fulmination on air) early this year.

The young man whose ‘keeping too has been at best patchy is obviously going through mid-career blues — inevitable in any cricketer’s career.  But one thing that Pant has going for him is his mental strength. He famously came back from a life threatening road accident (it happened on December 30, 2022). He returned to cricket in the IPL season last year, and was also part of the successful Indian squads at the 2024 T20 World Cup and the 2025 Champions Trophy.

Before the time runs out on him and his team, Pant has to stamp his authority back. His biggest challenge post that life-threatening accident starts now.