What Has Gone Wrong For Rishabh Pant As LSG’s Horror Show In IPL 2026 Continues

Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) are having a nightmare season in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026, losing their sixth game on the trot after a six-wicket defeat to Mumbai Indians (MI) at the Wankhede Stadium on Monday. The result leaves them at the bottom of the table with just four points from nine matches.

Captain Rishabh Pant looked dejected at the end of the MI vs LSG match. In his post-match interview, the Super Giants skipper, on being asked what his fledgling team needs to turn the season around, had a straight answer.

“I think we need some good luck, man. That’s the only thing I’m going to say,” he said. “I think a lot of blessing is going to work around it. And it’s going to take some more effort from us, for sure.”

What will hurt Pant even more is that his side were given a fiery start by Nicholas Pooran and Mitchell Marsh. Pooran, who has blown hot and cold all season, hit his first half-century in IPL 2026, finishing with 63 off just 21 balls. He was aided by Mitchell Marsh (44 off 25), and the pair took LSG to 90/1 inside the powerplay.

However, after their dismissals, the run rate dropped massively to around 10 an over. From a projected score that looked like it could touch 300, LSG were restricted to just 228/5 at a high-scoring venue.

MI, aided by a glorious opening partnership between Rohit Sharma and Ryan Rickelton, chased it down with eight balls to spare, marking Mumbai’s sixth-highest successful run chase in the IPL.

Following back-to-back playoff finishes after their debut in 2022, hopes were high that LSG could find a new gear and push on for a real title charge, much like Gujarat Titans (GT) did four years ago. It has, to put it mildly, not gone to that plan.

Instead of pushing for the top half of the table, LSG are at the very bottom. They have lost six consecutive matches, which is the joint fifth-worst run in Indian Premier League history.

With five matches remaining, they are on the cusp of breaking two unfortunate records: the 11-match losing streak of Pune Warriors (2013) and Delhi Daredevils (2014); and the four-point tally by Deccan Chargers (2008) and Delhi Capitals (2013).

Despite all this doom and gloom, LSG remain – at least mathematically – in the playoff race. First of all, they will need to win all five of their remaining games, which, at this point, looks a bit difficult. Second, they will need the teams in the top half of the table to lose their respective matches, that too in a specific order, the chances of which are astronomically low.

Low, but not zero, which means that the team will need to pick themselves up and prepare for the upcoming match against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on May 7.

The Rishabh Pant Question

When LSG made Rishabh Pant the costliest player in the IPL 2025 auction and handed him the captain’s armband, they did not expect that one day, questions would be raised about his role in the team.

Filling the boots of KL Rahul has proved to be a difficult task for Pant. LSG’s seventh-placed finish in the last edition was dismissed as teething problems, but there’s little to justify the 28-year-old’s performances this term, both as a batter and skipper.

Pant’s record as LSG skipper has been largely underwhelming. Over one-and-a-half years, he has led the team in 23 matches, winning just eight and losing 14. That’s a win percentage of less than 35%, which is shocking. For reference, Punjab Kings (PBKS) captain Shreyas Iyer has a win percentage of 61.53%.

The burden of captaincy seems to have taken a toll on his batting, too. Last year, he scored 269 runs in 14 innings, with an atrocious average of 24.45. This was his lowest tally in the IPL since his debut season in 2016. This year, he has managed 204 runs in nine innings at an average of 25.50, with just one half-century to his name.

It has been a tough few years for Pant, ever since his horrific accident in 2022. There was a moment when it seemed like he might never play cricket again, but Pant persevered. He made his return to the pitch after two years of recovery. However, such an incident is sure to leave a mark on anyone, and it might be one of the reasons behind his downturn in form.

The other factors haven’t helped him either. Injuries have continued to plague him, as he has already suffered three knocks in IPL 2026 alone. On top of that, he has no fixed position in the team, tried across the top order to no effect. This has not only affected his own gameplay but also that of others in the LSG team. Most notably, Nicholas Pooran, who has seen his form drop drastically after being moved from the number three position.

All this has led to growing calls for Pant to be removed as LSG captain. Former Indian player Wassim Jaffer has named Aiden Markram as one of the leading candidates to take over as the LSG skipper. Similarly, Manoj Tiwary and Rohan Gavaskar also urged Sanjiv Goenka to axe Pant from the captaincy role.

This is a damning indictment for Pant, whose future in T20 cricket looks to be fading rapidly. Despite having played 76 T20Is, he is nowhere near the national team at the moment, having played his last limited-overs match two years ago.

With IPL performances becoming increasingly important for a place in the national team, Pant’s hopes of making a comeback look more distant than ever. It’s time for the player and the team to go back to the drawing board and introspect, because Pant is too good a player to let his career wind down in such an underwhelming manner.