Rishabh Pant steps down as Lucknow Super Giants captain after horror IPL 2026 season: ‘He requested. We accepted’

Rishabh Pant steps down as Lucknow Super Giants captain after the franchise finished at the bottom of the IPL 2026 standings.

Updated on: May 29, 2026, 17:32:21 IST

Written by Vishesh Roy

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Rishabh Pant on Friday stepped down as the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) captain after the franchise finished 10th in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 points table. Pant, who joined the franchise before the 2025 edition of the tournament for a record price of INR 27 crore, failed to live up to the high billing, and Lucknow failed to qualify for the playoffs in the last two editions of the T20 tournament. In IPL 2026, LSG won just 4 of 10 matches, and the wicketkeeper-batter often sported a listless look when interacting with broadcasters after matches. With Pant stepping down, Aiden Markram and Mitchell Marsh are the frontrunners to replace him as the next skipper of the franchise.

Lucknow Super Giants' captain Rishabh Pant during IPL 2026. (AFP) (HT_PRINT)

On Friday, LSG confirmed that Pant himself asked to step down as the captain, and the franchise accepted his request with immediate effect. The franchise, currently coached by Justin Langer, further stated that the focus will now be on “rebuilding and restructuring to reach the best standards.”

“Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) wish to formally announce that Rishabh Pant has requested to be relieved of his captaincy duties with the franchise, and the franchisee has accepted his request with immediate effect,” LSG said in an official statement shared on X (formerly Twitter).

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“Rishabh approached the franchisee with this request, and we have respectfully accepted it. These decisions are never easy. We are grateful for everything Rishabh has brought to this dressing room as captain. Our focus now is on the collective - rebuilding and restructuring to reach the best standards,” it added.

How did Pant perform?

Pant had a below-par IPL 2026 campaign with the bat for LSG, scoring 312 runs in 14 matches at an average of 33.61 and a strike rate of 146.79. He began the season as an opener, but this experiment lasted just one match. He then started batting at No. 3, and towards the end of the season, he was demoted further.

Pant's returns with the bat improved in 2026, considering how he scored just 269 runs last year. His numbers would have been even more abysmal in 2025 had he not scored a century in the team's last group-stage match against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB).

After LSG's last match of the season, Director of Cricket Tom Moody had hinted towards a leadership change, saying the franchise would explore all options.

“From a captaincy point of view, he’s found it challenging, and the results reflect that,” Moody told reporters after the seven-wicket loss to Punjab Kings.

“But certainly we haven’t lived up to the expectation or the standard that we expect of ourselves. When it comes to the leadership of the franchise, it’s something we’ll be taking some very serious consideration of, what it looks like in the future. But it certainly looks like we’re needing to consider a reset,” he added.

At several stages during the 19th edition of the T20 tournament, Pant hinted that there were too many coaches in the support staff, leading to much speculation about the atmosphere in the dressing room.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Vishesh Roy
Vishesh Roy is a sports journalist with a strong focus on cricket. He began his career at Asian News International (ANI), where he covered a range of high-profile events, including the India Open, Legends Cricket League, the England–India Test series in Ahmedabad in 2021, and the inauguration of the Narendra Modi Stadium. During his tenure at ANI, he also reported extensively on domestic cricket, covering several Ranji Trophy and Vijay Hazare Trophy matches across the country. While cricket remains his primary beat, Vishesh has also reported on tennis, football and WWE. After a stint of over three years at ANI, Vishesh moved to NDTV, where he gained hands-on experience in digital-first journalism, with a particular emphasis on live blogs and real-time news reporting. He joined Hindustan Times in October 2024 and quickly established himself with a series of exclusive interviews and source-driven stories. Ahead of the IPL 2025 auction, Hindustan Times was the first to report that the two-day event would be held in Saudi Arabia. In the early months of his tenure, Vishesh secured interviews with leading cricketers, including Pat Cummins, Shreyas Iyer, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Rashid Latif. He has also closely tracked the rise of emerging talents such as Vaibhav Suryavanshi and Priyansh Arya by speaking to their current and childhood coaches. His background in on-field reporting has helped Hindustan Times Digital break exclusive stories on major developments, including Virat Kohli’s return to the Ranji and Vijay Hazare Trophy, IPL scheduling, and the T20 World Cup controversy involving Bangladesh and Pakistan.Read More

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