Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) skipper Rishabh Pant is under the greatest pressure to perform well in the 2026 Indian Premier League (IPL), according to former South African batter Faf du Plessis.
During last year’s massive auction, Pant made a big-money move to LSG, joining the Lucknow-based team for a record INR 27 crore. According to Faf du Plessis, the wicketkeeper-batter had a poor season because of the strain of the price tag.
“For me, Rishabh Pant is probably the player in the IPL, who is under the most pressure this season. Some guys flourish under the price tag pressure, while some don’t. I think last season was a really tough one for him. The team struggled, and he also struggled with runs in the way that he batted. So, there is all that pressure coming into the season, along with the expectations of what the team is going to do,” du Plessis said on JioStar.
Du Plessis wants Pant to reach his maximum potential. If he can help, the LSG team’s batting-heavy lineup will relieve some of the bowling burden.
“With a batting-heavy team, how are they going to maximise their bowling? Because there is pressure on your captain, scoring runs is your first job. So, if he is scoring runs as a captain, it takes pressure off in the first instance. But then there is a second instance, which is the team performance, overall. And last year, both of those things had big red crosses against them,” he added./
Rishabh Pant scored 269 runs in the IPL the previous year. But his undefeated 118 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the close of the season distorted a lot of it. Since that encounter in Lucknow, the 27-year-old has not participated in a professional T20 match, which may have an impact on his general performance at the beginning of the 2026 IPL.
