IPL 2026: Rishabh Pant leaves the captaincy of Lucknow Super Giants after poor performance Gujarati

Mumbai, 29 May 2025: After a very disappointing performance in the Indian Premier League 2026, Lucknow Super Giants captain Rishabh Pant has taken a big decision to step down from the captaincy of the team. Meanwhile, according to the team management, Pant himself had requested to be relieved of the responsibilities of the post of captain, which has been accepted by the management with immediate effect. Lucknow Super Giants Director of Cricket Tom Moody, reacting to the decision, said that Pante himself had expressed his desire to step down from the captaincy to the team management. Tom Moody clarified in his statement that Rishabh Pant had requested to relieve the franchise from the captaincy and he has respectfully accepted it. He added that such decisions are never easy. The team is grateful for the contribution Rishabh has made in the dressing room as captain and now his entire focus is on rebuilding the team and performing better in the future.

In the mega auction of IPL 2025, Lucknow Super Giants had bought Rishabh Pant for a record amount of Rs 27 crore. The franchise had huge expectations from him, but his tenure as captain failed to live up to the expectations. The performance of the Lucknow team under Pant’s captaincy was very weak. In the IPL 2025 season, the team won only 6 out of 14 matches. Subsequently, the situation was more difficult in IPL 2026, in which the team could win only 4 out of 14 matches and lost 10 matches and remained at the bottom i.e. last in the points table. Overall, under the captaincy of Rishabh Pant, Lakhnau Rameli had won only 10 matches out of total 28 matches.

• Lack of continuity was seen in batting also

The impact of the pressure of captaincy was clearly visible on the personal performance of Rishabh Pant. Even as a batsman, he was not seen in his old form. If we look at the statistics, in IPL 2025 he played 14 matches and scored only 269 runs. Whereas in IPL 2026, a total of 312 runs were scored from his bat in 14 matches. There was a clear lack of continuity in his innings in both these seasons, which became a major reason for the team’s poor performance.

Currently, Lucknow Super Giants has not made any official announcement about the name of the new captain. However, there is talk in the cricket world that in the coming days the franchise may take a big decision regarding the new leadership of the team. Now the eyes of cricket fans and experts are fixed on which player will be handed over the batting command in the next season.