Rishabh Pant walked off Ekana Stadium on Wednesday night with more questions than answers. Lucknow Super Giants had just lost by six wickets to Delhi Capitals – a game that felt in their grasp when the visitors were tottering at 26 for 4 – and the captain’s own switch to the top of the order had lasted all of nine balls.
“I think it’s a 50-50 call, but we’ll see,” Pant said when asked if he would keep opening for the rest of the campaign. “But [you’ll] definitely see me in the top order.” That much is settled; exactly where in the top three remains the debate.
Key facts first, then: LSG 141 for 7, DC 145 for 4, four balls spare. Sameer Rizvi and Tristan Stubbs shared an unbroken 119, rescuing Delhi from a mess of their own making. LSG leaked 20 extras, a figure Pant admitted hurt badly. “Definitely extras hurt. But at the same time, you know, when a wicket like this happens, you are trying too much,” he said. “Especially in a score like 140 where you have to get them out because if they play even normal cricket, they can get away.”
Now the bigger talking point – Pant opening with Mitchell Marsh. Last season Marsh and Aiden Markram had formed one of the tournament’s most reliable opening pairings, 445 runs between them, strike rate nudging 150. On Wednesday Markram shuffled to three, Nicholas Pooran slid to four, and youngster Ayush Badoni was thrown in at five. Pooran had scored 524 runs at 196 last season from one-down; those numbers suddenly look marooned in the scorebook.
Pant explained the logic. “I think the idea was very simple. Like, [Pooran] is taking the charge in the middle overs. He’s not batting in the top order anymore because I’m batting up the order,” he said. “And the swap [between Pooran and Badoni] happened because, you know, we wanted to explore that lefty-righty option at the top. So, they couldn’t bowl a left-arm spinner. Unfortunately, I got out at the wrong time.”
Unfortunate is putting it mildly. Marsh drilled a straight drive, Mukesh Kumar stuck out a hand, the ball ricocheted onto the non-striker’s stumps and Pant, backing up, was gone for 7. Tough luck, but luck counts in Twenty20.
The rejig had other consequences. LSG had planned to use leg-spinner Digvesh Rathi as their Impact Player, only for the brittle batting to force a rethink. All-rounder Shahbaz Ahmed was pressed into service during the first innings and, in Pant’s words, “that was the option we had to take as Impact Player because we were short on runs in a good surface.” Shahbaz’s 15* off 16 and a solitary over that cost 16 hardly shifted the match.
Outside the dressing room, opinions are mixed. Former South Africa quick Dale Steyn argued pre-game that a left-hander with Pant’s gears up front can “catch bowlers off guard”, particularly in the Powerplay when only two fielders patrol the deep. Others wonder if Markram’s demotion fixes a problem that did not exist.
The numbers offer half an answer. Pant hasn’t opened regularly in T20s since late 2022; he did it once last season when Marsh was missing. It is newish territory, and with Lucknow now 0-1 after one match, every shuffle will be magnified.
Still, the skipper sounded calm enough. “That’s part and parcel of the game and that’s the role we are defining for Badoni. When the situation is tough like that, when we lose early wickets, that’s the time he needs to make a mark,” he said, backing the 24-year-old to find a niche.
Next up is a trip to Hyderabad. Whether Pant marches out first ball or slides to number three, Super Giants will know the opening question – in every sense – remains only half-answered.
