Faf du Plessis advises LSG captain Rishabh Pant to add method to T20 madness
Faf du Plessis urged Lucknow Super Giants captain Rishabh Pant to add method to his T20 game ahead of IPL 2026. The former South Africa cricketer advised Pant, who scored just 269 runs in IPL 2025 despite a Rs 27 crore price tag, to focus on consistency and a clear game plan to deliver impact.
Lucknow Super Giants captain Rishabh Pant failed to live up to the potential in IPL 2025. He was bought for Rs 27 crore in the auction, but on the pitch, the keeper-batter struggled to keep up as he registered only 269 runs in 14 matches at a strike rate of 133.16. For the majority of the season, his strike rate was below 100. It was only in the final league game against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, when Pant scored a century to improve both his runs and strike rate.
Since the completion of the season, there have been plenty of talks on whether Pant should be retained at such a high price. However, Lucknow showed immense belief in him as the owner, Sanjiv Goenka dashed all the reports on him being released ahead of the auction. Nevertheless, Pant will be under extreme pressure in the 2026 season.
Pant shouldn’t premeditate every ball: Faf du Plessis
His T20 numbers in general aren’t on the bright side, as Pant is also currently out of India’s white-ball squad. When it comes to Test cricket, he is arguably the first name on the team sheet, but the Haridwar-born hasn’t been able to reflect that in the other two formats. Speaking on that, former cricketer Faf du Plessis advised Pant to sort out his game plan sooner and asked the cricketer not to premeditate every ball.
“Rishabh Pant’s stroke play is one that looks all over the place. There is some sort of method and game plan that goes into his head. He has a blueprint for how he wants to play Test cricket. The same thing applies in T20 cricket. He needs to figure out exactly what his game plan looks like to give himself the best chance. Not to be a one out of ten or two out of ten kind of player, but to be in the 60 to 70 per cent range where he can have consistency,” du Plessis said on JioStar’s ‘IPL Today Live’.
“To do that, you can’t premeditate every ball. That is too high risk. Yes, you might hit a few sixes and play a couple of good innings. But when teams bowl wide to him, he is good enough to have something else in his armoury to hit through the offside. His game plan is not one-dimensional. He can score all around the ground. For me, it is about his first six balls. When I look at him, he is almost like a highlight player. I want him to be more of a high-impact player in terms of what he can give in his numbers,” he added.
Meanwhile, LSG’s IPL 2026 campaign will begin on April 1 against Pant’s former side Delhi Capitals.
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