When Lucknow Super Giants shelled out a record-breaking ₹27 crore for Rishabh Pant at the 2025 IPL mega auction, they thought they were getting a comeback king. A fearless hitter, a fiery leader and a box-office player with a point to prove.
What they got instead was a walking headline for all the wrong reasons -- a high-stakes gamble gone horribly wrong.
On Sunday, in Dharamshala, Pant’s season unravelled further, not just statistically, but symbolically.
In a must-win game against Punjab Kings, chasing a mammoth 237, he scratched his way to 18 off 17 balls before delivering a moment of pure slapstick: attempting a slog off Azmatullah Omarzai, his bat flew out of his hands and landed near square leg, while the ball took the opposite trajectory -- safely caught at deep point.
One swing, two losses -- bat and wicket -- and a season summed up in a single, surreal snapshot.
Rishabh Pant's horror show with the bat this season:
That’s a grand total of 128 runs in 10 innings, an average of 12.80 and a strike rate of 99.22. Just one fifty! Seven scores in single digits. Two ducks, both ironically against his former team, Delhi Capitals.
For a Rs 27 crore player -- the most expensive in IPL history -- these are catastrophic numbers.
Even more galling for fans is how Pant has carried himself. After the auction, he made a sly comment about not wanting to be picked by Punjab Kings: "From inside, I had only one tension. That was Punjab. Their budget was so high that if they wanted, you couldn’t do anything. When Shreyas joined Punjab, I was relieved that I could join LSG."
Those words have aged poorly. PBKS -- under the leadership of Shreyas Iyer, the man they picked over Pant -- have now done the double over LSG this season, winning by eight wickets earlier and by 37 runs on Sunday.
While Iyer has led with tactical sharpness and composure, Pant has cut a frustrated figure, often yelling at bowlers, appearing confused in the field, showing little signs of turning his own form around.
Even LSG owner Sanjiv Goenka, known for his animated reactions, was visibly crestfallen after Pant’s latest dismissal. The camera caught him shaking his head, hands on face, as the so-called marquee man failed once again.
Pant’s captaincy has also come under severe criticism. His field placements have been defensive, his bowling changes uninspiring.
In contrast, Iyer’s move to bowl Arshdeep Singh in three of the first ten overs paid off handsomely. He bagged the wickets of Mitchell Marsh, Nicholas Pooran and Aiden Markram.
Former India opener Virender Sehwag was blunt in his assessment.
"I think Rishabh Pant should go back and watch his old IPL videos. That will remind him how he used to build his innings, how he used to play his shots. Sometimes you forget your old routines. He idolises Dhoni -- maybe he should call him and talk."
Pant’s troubles aren’t just mental or technical; they’re also deeply symbolic. For a player who was once seen as MS Dhoni’s heir, his fall from grace in IPL 2025 is shocking. He’s failed to anchor, failed to accelerate and failed to inspire.
LSG’s campaign now hangs by a thread. Their top-order continues to collapse, their powerplay scores are among the lowest this season -- just 38 for 3 in the latest game. Their captain, the man tasked with steadying the ship, has instead turned into a liability.
Yes, all players suffer poor seasons. But when the stakes are Rs 27 crore, scrutiny is inevitable. Pant hasn’t just failed; he’s failed spectacularly!
On social media, fans haven’t held back. Memes comparing Pant’s salary-per-run to Bitcoin price charts, videos of his bat-flying dismissal, and montages of his angry expressions behind the stumps have gone viral.
Even his lone bright spot this season -- a 63 off 49 balls vs CSK -- came in a losing cause. There’s been no match-winning innings, no moment of inspiration, nothing to justify the price tag.
Now, with LSG staring at an early exit, questions must be asked:
• Was this the worst auction decision ever?
• Has Rishabh Pant become the biggest flop in IPL history?
• And, most importantly, is it already time for LSG to move on?
Only time will tell. For now, Pant’s bat isn’t the only thing that’s up in the air -- so is his IPL legacy.
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