The Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) side picked Rishabh Pant as their biggest buy in the IPL mega-auction of 2024, which was held in Jeddah. This marked Sanjiv Goenka, the LSG owner, recently hinting towards Pant’s probable position in their batting order.
Goenka and his team members shocked all with a whopping bid of INR 27 crores made on the Indian wicketkeeper-batsman. After the 27-year-old spent most of his IPL days playing for a single franchise, the Delhi Capitals, the Ekana is scheduled to be his second home.
Likely everyone considered that Pant would come in at no. 3, while Goenka indicated towards him opening the innings as well. The likes of Mitchell Marsh and Aiden Markram would remain at the top of the LSG batting order.
“Options are to open with Aiden Markram and Mitchell Marsh, Marsh and Rishabh Pant, or Markram and Rishabh. Now that is a call they have to take on whether Rishabh will come in at No. 3 or No. 2. Those are calls that frankly are beyond my capability and competence,” Goenka said in the interaction with Aakash Chopra on his YouTube.
Rishabh Pant has played for the Capitals in several different positions, while he opened long back in the competition just a handful of times. In the opening spot for the Capitals, Pant has played 4 innings, scoring 104 runs at a strike rate of 136.84.
Looking for explosive batting partners, the LSG side also hoped to acquire the likes of Jos Buttler, but with the England skipper going to the Gujarat Titans, Pant became more valuable to the Lucknow franchise.
Rishabh Pant might also be seen as the skipper for LSG
Several experts have considered the likes of Rishabh Pant for the role of captain to the debutants of the 2022 season. Previously led by KL Rahul, LSG went on to play two knockout games in 2022 and 2023, while they failed to proceed further in 2024.
KL Rahul, after being discouraged over his role in the LSG camp, decided to move out of the side to explore more dimensions of his game. While the likes of Nicholas Pooran, retained for INR 21 crores, and Rishabh Pant, the new additions, are both considered ideal for the captaincy role.
Goenka also claimed that the decision will be made over the span of the next few months and will be announced then.
