The IPL 2025 is turning out to be a big nightmare for Rishabh Pant with the bat. He has scored just 128 runs in 11 matches at a strike rate of 99.22. The massive INR 27 crore price tag has put some added pressure on him. The hat-trick of defeats in the last three matches has made things even worse for him as Lucknow Super Giants have lost the momentum in the playoffs race. The rough patch with the bat and recent match results has led to frustration in LSG's camp, which is very much visible on Pant's face during the matches.
The overreliance on Nicholas Pooran with the bat has impacted their recent results. In the initial phase, when Pooran was going all guns blazing and had the Orange Cap, LSG looked strong on the points table in the top four, but now they have slipped to seventh.
Former Australia captain Aaron Finch has offered a piece of advice to Pant. He told him to hand over the wicketkeeping duties to Pooran. The T20 World Cup-winning captain explained the reason behind his advice which is the extra time for communication between the bowlers and Pant. The stop-clock rule states that the fielding team has to start a new over within 60 seconds of completing the previous one.
"It must be really difficult to captain a side when you're the wicketkeeper. The communication between you and your bowlers - you probably get a couple of seconds. Obviously, there's a lot of emphasis on the clock between overs, but you might have 10, 15 seconds to chat to your bowler between overs," Finch said on JioStar.
{{/usCountry}}"It must be really difficult to captain a side when you're the wicketkeeper. The communication between you and your bowlers - you probably get a couple of seconds. Obviously, there's a lot of emphasis on the clock between overs, but you might have 10, 15 seconds to chat to your bowler between overs," Finch said on JioStar.
{{/usCountry}}Finch suggested that Pooran has been the bridge between Pant and the bowler at the moment in terms of relaying messages to each other. He also asserted that Pant also looked a bit frustrated and animated on the field after the plans didn't get executed well.
"So then it falls on Nicholas Pooran, who's probably somewhere in front of the wicket, to then start relaying messages as well. That can be really difficult - to really commit to a plan - because the bowler's thinking might change ball to ball, and so might Rishabh's. You can see just how animated and frustrated he is right throughout," he added.
‘Pooran just take the gloves for a game or two’
Finch asserted that the game has evolved and become much faster now, and it is difficult for a wicketkeeper captain to communicate with his bowler after every ball. He gave the example of Shreyas Iyer and Shubman Gill in the leadership roles, as they have constant communication with their bowlers.
"So, maybe it's an opportunity where he says, 'Right, Pooran, you just take the gloves for a game or two. I just need to get some rhythm, get some communication with my attack, so we can start to plan and manage our way through the twenties just that little bit better.' Because the communication breakdown when you're behind the stumps is really, really difficult. But the game's changed a bit since then, I reckon. The game is so much faster now. One or two balls can swing the whole momentum of a game, so I think you need that constant communication with your bowler. Often Shreyas Iyer is at mid-off, Shubman Gill is at mid-on - there are guys there all the time," Finch concluded.