Rishabh Pant claimed that the Lucknow Super Giants struggled to stay up with the other teams as the playoff race intensified following their ouster from the IPL 2025 playoffs.
As the Lucknow Super Giants lost their bid to qualify for the Indian Premier League playoffs, captain Rishabh Pant acknowledged on Monday that his team had a hard time filling the vacuum left by the absence of important bowlers.The Pant-led team suffered a taxing campaign from their overworked bowling staff, and their six-wicket loss to Sunrisers Hyderabad today eliminated them from consideration for a top-four finish.
After their defeat to SRH, Pant told the broadcaster, “It could have been one of our best seasons, but we had a lot of gaps and injuries going into the tournament, and as a team we decided not to talk about that, but it became difficult to fill those gaps for us.”
Mohsin Khan, Avesh Khan, Akash Deep, and Mayank Yadav were all injured when LSG started the IPL.
After the season started and players like Avesh and Akash came back, they signed Shardul Thakur, but Mayank was only able to play in a few games before being hurt again.
We take satisfaction in the way we performed and focus on the season’s bright aspects rather than its negative ones. The way we organized the auction and if we would have had the same bowling… but this is cricket, sometimes things go your way and sometimes they don’t.”
“We have a strong batting lineup, have enough firepower, and that is the biggest positive for the season,” Pant, a batter who had a terrible season, stated.
As the playoff race intensified, Pant stated LSG struggled to stay ahead of the other teams.
“We played really well in the first half of the season, but it got harder and harder to catch up to the teams on the bright side in the second half,” he remarked.
He cited Digvesh Rathi’s debut season as one of the positives, saying, “He has come up nicely for us, the way he bowled, he is one of the positives, but you need to keep improving yourself and get better and better as the seasons go.”
Abhishek Sharma, the opener for India, hit 59 off just 20 balls with six sixes and five fours, paving the way for SRH’s victory. Sharma attributed his accomplishment to having a well-defined plan.
“I might have had other plans if we (had) batted first, but we had a clear plan while chasing such a score. Any player who has been doing well for the club will tell you that you should be able to win the powerplay if you chase 200 or more. “I wanted to express myself, and I know the team will succeed if I do well.” I used the same strategy when playing international cricket. Simply express myself and spread the word,” Sharma continued.
According to Sharma, it’s critical for international players to accept responsibilities. “As an international player, you must accept responsibilities. The international side had the same plan. “I had to go for it if there was an opportunity on the first ball,” he remarked.
