Only for the third time in the Indian Premier League, Rishabh Pant batted at No.7 or lower. He came out to bat in the final over at No.7 during LSG’s clash against Delhi Capitals at the Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow. Pant has revealed the reason behind his late arrival.
Lucknow Super Giants captain Rishabh Pant copped a bit of criticism after he came in to bat as low as No.7 in his team’s clash against Delhi Capitals at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow. Pant, who has batted at several positions, including the top spot too, sent in other batters during the first innings and even used impact sub Ayush Badoni, as he did in LSG’s last game against Rajasthan Royals.
Pant came in to bat at No.7 in the final over when Badoni was dismissed. He only had to face two balls and while he missed the first one, Pant was dismissed on the next one for a two-ball duck. He batted at No.7 or lower for the third time in the Indian cash-rich league and the first time after nine years. Pant was having a tape on his hand, which raised the injury concerns, however, he stated that his hand is doing fine at the toss against DC.
Meanwhile, the LSG skipper has opened up on the reason behind why he came to bat so low in the batting order after his team’s eight wicket loss to the Capitals. “Idea was to like capitalize. We sent Samad to capitalize on a wicket like that. After that Miller came in and we just really got stuck in the wicket. Eventually, these are the things we got to figure out and try to find our best combination going forward,” Pant said in the post-match presentation.
He also opened on the idea of bringing tearaway pacer Mayank Yadav back into the team. “That is one idea why we are impacting Ayush, to get Mayank some game time, just trying to find ways to get him early in the season because it’s already halfway around. He came from NCA now, just trying to fit him in,” he said.
Meanwhile, the LSG skipper reflected on the loss, saying that they were nearly 20 runs short of what they should have got. “We knew we were 20 runs short. In Lucknow, toss played a big part. Whoever is bowling first, they get a lot of help from the wicket. We just had to stay back, we just couldn’t get it away. It always happens in Lucknow, in the second innings, the wicket gets better and batter to bat on, that’s how the game goes and you can’t be complaining. Yes, toss is playing a huge part here, but as a team, we are not looking for excuses,” Pant said.
Speaking on the further matches, Pant said, “I haven’t thought about anything as of now, just finished the match, we are gonna regroup, realign and refocus again. Just going to be playing the next match from a fresh start.”
