Rishabh Pant Will Start Creating Impact Very Soon: LSG Mentor Zaheer Khan

At INR 27 crore, he was the most expensive purchase in history at the IPL 2025 mega auction, but it’s thus far been a horror season for Rishabh Pant, who has consistently negatively impacted the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) side with painful showings with the bat.

10 games into IPL 2025, Pant has managed just 110 runs at an average of 12.22, and he’s been striking at 98.0. He’s crossed the 25-run mark just once all season and his last scores read 4, 0 & 3, with the latest of the failures coming against Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede on April 27 (Sunday), where a noteworthy contribution from the left-hander could have potentially taken LSG over the line.

Pant, in all fairness, is getting into ‘must be dropped’ territory, but the side’s mentor Zaheer Khan backed the LSG captain to turn things around and create an impact ‘very soon’.

"As a batter… the middle order is dependent on Rishabh. And I'm very confident that the impact, which we want from him, will come. It's just about something clicking. So I wouldn't relate it to pressure,” Zaheer said after the MI clash.

With 5 wins in 10, LSG are in contention despite Pant’s horror form, and Zaheer credited the 27-year-old’s leadership, labelling the wicketkeeper a ‘fantastic leader’.

"He's a leader and he's been fantastic as a leader," Zaheer said. "That's something which I can vouch for. The kind of efforts he's been taking to make sure that each individual in that group is comfortable, is heard, and the planning to do everything which goes around in IPL, he's being spot on.”

The former India quick further insisted that Pant is absolutely the right individual who will take LSG forward in the IPL in the years to come.

"When you're talking about a team, you're talking about winning the tournament, you're talking about winning the trophy. We've identified Rishabh as that leader who is going to take this team forward. There is no doubt about that."

The MI clash also saw the return of tearaway quick Mayank Yadav, for whom Shardul Thakur had to make way. But though Shardul was effectively dropped from the starting XI, Zaheer said that LSG had created a 'training window' for the right-armer, who he insisted will likely return towards the back end of the tournament.

"The way Shardul started the tournament, He's done a phenomenal job for this setup," Zaheer said. 

"We needed to create a training window also for him and that's what we've done. It's a long tournament, so we are keeping things in mind. There are some tactical calls which we've been taking. We thought that it as an opportunity for us to bring Mayank in the tournament. And that's the reason we've given complete off for Shardul to really get ready for the back end of the tournament."