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“What I Noticed…” Sanjay Bangar Issues Advice For Struggling Rishabh Pant

Aakash Saini

Rishabh Pant during IPL 2025 [Source: @HighestBid27cr/x]Rishabh Pant during IPL 2025 [Source: @HighestBid27cr/x]

Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) captain Rishabh Pant is yet to light up the IPL 2025 stage with his pyrotechnics. In 10 innings of the tournament so far, the blistering wicketkeeper-batter has managed to list just one half-century.

Undergoing one of the worst IPL seasons of his career, Pant has now received some invaluable tips from former Indian player and cricket coach Sanjay Bangar. The 52-year-old recently analysed Rishabh’s form of dismissals, and asked him to slightly alter his batting approach to retain his lost touch.

Sanjay Bangar advises Rishabh Pant

Speaking on Rishabh Pant’s dwindling form with the bat in IPL 2025, Sanjay Bangar made a huge claim that the Indian wicketkeeper-batter is yet to fully “understand the white-ball game”. He said:

“We have to recognise that he’s still yet to totally understand the white-ball game – both formats, 50-over cricket as well as T20 cricket. A fabulous Test match batter, make no mistake about it, but here in this particular season, what I noticed is that he got out a number of times looking to play shots behind the wicket.”

Bangar also advised Rishabh Pant to limit playing reverse sweeps and start employing traditional strokes like driving over the covers and stepping down the track for hitting sixes. He added:

“If you do look to score down the ground a lot of times, then all those other areas open up. But if you’re only looking to score behind, then whatever is in front of you, you sort of are very much late and not in a great position to play. Now, you pull out the best innings of Rishabh – where has he looked to score the runs? Drives through covers, step down the track and try to hit the sightscreen or go over midwicket, square. But here he was trying to play those reverse sweeps or shots that are very fine. So as a batter, I think probably he just got caught in that confusion and forgot that his best game, or that he plays at his best, is when he’s looking to score down the ground.”

Rishabh Pant has managed to tally just 128 runs from 10 innings at a substandard average of 12.80 in IPL 2025 season. Moreover, he cracked 63 of those runs in a single innings, doing so against CSK in Lucknow on April 14.

Nonetheless, the IPL 2025 season has now been suspended by the BCCI citing India’s border tensions with Pakistan. Rishabh Pant will be expected to resume his leadership duties for LSG upon the resumption of the tournament.