Rishabh Pant will start a new chapter as LSG captain in IPL 2025. What role should he reserve for himself as a batter? Naman Agarwal answers.
Rishabh Pant's failure to crack T20Is is one of modern cricket's great anomalies. He is the quintessential T20 cricketer, yet finds himself averaging 23, striking under 130 after more than 75 matches, and out of the Indian side. IPL 2025 will present him with an opportunity for a new beginning as captain of the Lucknow Super Giants, one he needs to grab with both hands to re-establish himself in a format India seem to have perfected of late.
Also read: Rishabh Pant is already India's greatest Test keeper-batter, and he has Gilchrist in his sights
The first big decision Pant has to make as LSG captain is where to play himself.
Lucknow have one of the most high profile international batting contingents in IPL 2025. All four of their overseas slots are expected to be occupied by batters - Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh, Nicholas Pooran, and David Miller. Add Pant and Ayush Badoni to that and the top six looks sorted for the season. The only problem is, none of them is a bonafide opener by trade.
Among the six, Pooran (94) and Marsh (85) have batted in the top three the most, but Markram (39) and Pant (21) have opened the batting on most occasions.
| Player | No. of T20s as opener |
| Aiden Markram | 39 |
| Rishabh Pant | 21 |
| Nicholas Pooran | 9 |
| Mitchell Marsh | 4 |
| Ayush Badoni | 2 |
| David Miller | 1 |
That does not provide a straightforward fix though, as Markram has opened only once in the last four years, and Pant only five times in the last six. How then, should Lucknow proceed with this?
There can be two approaches to solve this problem: one would be to pick the two best potential openers among the six, and the other would be to play the best potential middle order batters between 3-6.
A very tempting and simple application of the second approach would be to have Pant, Pooran, Miller, and Badoni rotating between 3-6, but the one-dimensionality of having three left-handers back-to-back is something no team wants to expose themselves to these days. How impactful left-right combinations are and whether they are worth sacrificing preferred slots of high quality batters is a separate matter altogether, but even if this was not one of the defining factors for Pant and Co, opening with Markram and Marsh might not be the most optimal way out of this logjam for LSG.
Also read: IPL 2025 power rankings: Punjab Kings the best placed side
Why Pant should open
Pooran is one of the most destructive T20 middle order batters in world cricket at the moment. No one - not Suryakumar Yadav, not Heinrich Klaasen - has scored more runs at a higher strike rate (175.98) than Pooran in the IPL since 2023. Miller has not set the stage on fire with his raw numbers but has grown into one of the most dependable finishers in white-ball cricket. That takes out these two from the opening race for LSG and places them at 4-5, or 5-6, or four and six respectively with Badoni between them to break the left-handed monotony.
Among the other three, Pant has the best numbers while opening the batting in T20s.
| Player | Avg as opener | SR as opener |
| Pant | 32.2 | 162.2 |
| Markram | 27.9 | 128.9 |
| Marsh | 18.8 | 147.1 |
While it's a small sample size compared to other positions, opening has also yielded the best returns for Pant himself so far. His average as a T20 opener is almost exactly the same as that at No.3, 4, or 5 and his strike rate is significantly higher. Pant also hits a boundary every 3.9 balls as an opener. The same figures for Pant at No.3, 4, and 5 are 4.7, 5.2, and 5.6 respectively. And this is depite having mostly opened several years back, when run-scoring inflation had not hit T20 cricket as hard as it has now.
The last time Pant opened in T20s was in 2022, when India were trying him out at the top for a brief period. The returns then were not great, but not awful either. Two single-digit scores (1 off 5 and 6 off 13) brought his average and strike rate down to 14.2 and 136.5, but on each occasion he scored more than 10, Pant struck at 170-plus.
He hasn't opened at any level of T20 cricket since, but did venture towards the top at the 2024 T20 World Cup, where India used him at three in an effort to capitalise on field restrictions and add a left-hander to the top three. He can do the same for LSG.
Opening will feed into Pant's style of play, allowing him to go over the in-field with ease without necessarily looking to clear the ropes every time. Not that Pant can't clear the rope at will, but for someone who is as spontaneous and natural a strokemaker as Pant is, having lesser fielders on the boundary line would always be an advantage as not all of their big hits are always calculated with precision based on where the fielders are. A tossed up delivery in the arc is often just slog swept as a reflex without caring about the angle of the deep mid-wicket fielder. A back of length ball on the hips is often just flick-pulled while falling over as a reflex without caring about where the square leg fielder is. Opening will allow Pant to be his most natural, free flowing self.
LSG can have either Marsh or Markram open alongside him. Markram is considered the better player of spin and Marsh the more brutal hitter, which should tilt scales in the favour of Marsh. If it comes off, the Marsh-Pant pair has the potential to blast records in similar vein to SRH's Head-Abhishek pair last season. Pooran can then keep the mayhem going or Markram can stabilise the innings based on requirements.
If Pant opens, it will also prevent oppositions from getting away with bowling left-arm spinners to two right-handers in the powerplay, forcing their usage in the middle period by when Pooran and Miller would also add to their troubles. And while it might not be Pant's primary concern right now, the only real spot up for grabs in the Indian T20I side is that of Sanju Samson's at the top, providing an added incentive for Pant to make the move.
But will Pant open?
"Obviously, there is a temptation to go that way [open the innings] but there is no 100 per cent clarity that should I open or stay in the middle order," Pant had said in January when LSG announced him captain.
"Because when you have played in the middle order for so many years and have done well, God has been kind, so you get used to it. So I don't want to make rash decisions like 'let's do it because the external noise is suggesting this'.
"For me, this is my life, it's my career and this is something I live for and I don't want to change that overnight. I want to think over it a bit more, discuss it further with Zak bhai [Zaheer Khan, LSG mentor] and Justin [Langer, LSG head coach] about what we can do and eventually, we will back whatever decision we take."
At that point, Pant didn't sound the keenest to make a drastic shift at this stage of his career. Understandably so. Last year was his best in the IPL since 2019, scoring 446 runs at a strike rate of 155.4 while batting primarily at four and five.
There's also comfort in familiarity. When the discomfort of a 27 crore price tag hangs on your head, you would not want to voluntarily add to your mental burdens.
But with the right kind of backing and protection from the 'external noise' that Pant does not want to fall in the trap of, this is a call that has the potential of unlocking a beast. He's already out of the national side and is 27 years old. Rohit Sharma was 25 when he made the move to the top. If this turns out half as good as that, we would be in for a fun ride. But with Pant, we know it can potentially turn out better.
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