3 min readMar 17, 2026 03:42 PM IST
India wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant will need an extraordinary IPL 2026 season to revive his chances in the ODI and T20I set-ups, according to former India batter S Badrinath.
Pant has been away from competitive action for more than two months since captaining Delhi in the domestic circuit, and is now gearing up for his second IPL season as captain with Lucknow Super Giants.
“There will be a lot of focus on Rishabh Pant. Let’s not forget, he was the most expensive player in the auction two years back. So there will be massive expectations on him. It is clear that he has gone out of favor within the Indian white-ball setup. They are seeing him only as a red-ball player,” said Badrinath on his YouTube channel.
Pant was signed up by LSG for a record-shattering Rs 27.50 crore last season. The weight of expectations did not sit well with Pant, who managed only 269 runs at a 24.45 average, his lowest ever in an edition of the tournament. Badrinath observed that captaincy had bogged down Pant last season, affecting his consistency.
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Pant last featured for India in the white-ball formats in mid-2024. He has lost his status as the first-choice wicket-keeper in ODIs to KL Rahul in this period and was not in the reckoning for the T20 World Cup this year.
“If he has to create headlines in white-ball cricket, the upcoming IPL season in huge for Pant. Captaincy has seemingly diminished his free-flowing batting. He has not been very consistent in the last two IPL seasons. He hasn’t delivered much in white-ball cricket. Except that one century at the end, he didn’t do anything last season. It was just a face-saving hundred,” the former CSK batter remarked.
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Pant has undergone a tremendous makeover in his bid to revive his white-ball credentials. The Indian Express recently reported on how a chiseled Pant is gearing up for a fresh season. The work he has put in over the last five months speaks for itself. Ahead of what promises to be a defining IPL season, the LSG captain looked remarkably fit as the franchise began its preparations in Chennai.
