Watch: Rishabh Pant Vents His Frustration At Digvesh Rathi After LSG 'Mismanagement'

The Lucknow Super Giants’ captain and wicket-keeper, Rishabh Pant, was vividly unhappy on many occasions during their previous contest against the Delhi Capitals during the 2025 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Stadium in Lucknow.

First, surprisingly, he didn’t come to bat early in the inning despite the side being in a tough situation after losing Nicholas Pooran in the 12th over of the first innings.

Watch: “Apna Wala Dal”- Rishabh Pant's secret message to Divnesh Rathi

It was the ninth over of the second inning when Rishabh Pant looked furious at the young off-spinner, Digvesh Rathi. He gave a secret message to the bowler after the bowler missed his line and length against KL Rahul.

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“Apna wala dal”- Pant suggested to Rathi after Rahul went back to cut the previous short delivery into the hands of the point fielder for a single. The wicketkeeper wanted his bowler to put more air in the flighted delivery to make it tough for the set batters in a low-run chase.

Rathi, despite playing his debut IPL season, has earned so much success in the competition so far. He is the second leading wicket-taker for the Lucknow Super Giants in IPL 2025, with nine scalps in nine innings at an average of around 30 and a strike rate of 24. His economy rate of 7.27 is quite good in a season where most of the teams have put huge scores on the board.

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Rishabh Pant’s poor IPL 2025 continues

It’s such a poor season for Rishabh Pant. Staying out of the Indian side for the entire January and February in the ODI series against England and the Champions Trophy 2025, it was not easy for the southpaw to get the same rhythm back in his batting from the start of the IPL.

But even after so many games this edition, he hasn’t been able to make a mark with the bat. The camera found him getting involved in a heated argument with their mentor and the former left-arm pacer of the Indian side, Zaheer Khan, on something, which many have reckoned as the batting position.

It's still not clear why the management promoted all the other batters, including Abdul Samad and Ayush Badoni, in that order. The frustration grew more when he saw David Miller finding it incredibly hard to bat in the middle with a strike rate of below 100.

Rishabh Pant has so far managed 106 runs in eight innings in the IPL 2025 with an average of 13.25 and a strike rate of below 100, thanks to the best score of 63 that he got against the Chennai Super Kings at the same venue a few days ago.

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It will be important for the franchise to see their captain firing. The veteran can then channel the energy of the batting into the captaincy.

Lucknow Super Giants are stuck in mid-season traffic

The Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) faced defeat in their opening game of the season. But they made a strong return in the season with three successive victories.

However, the last few games have not gone according to their plans. Avesh Khan’s superb death over-bowling saved them against the Rajasthan Royals, apart from the two defeats in the last three games.

The Rishabh Pant-led side is currently in the sixth position with five wins in nine games at a net run rate (NRR) of -0.054 and will face the Mumbai Indians next in an away afternoon fixture.