India, April 17 -- Rishabh Pant in the IPL, and in T20 cricket as a whole, remains a quandary. His performances in a Lucknow Super Giants shirt over the last two years have been nothing short of wasteful given the INR 27 crore paycheck he was cut in the auction. For many, the consensus has been reached that Pant isn't a natural T20 hitter anymore, even if his Test form remains supreme in an Indian jersey.

It's tough to tell what's going wrong with Pant, whether it's a technical deficiency in his high-risk approach, or if it is the pressure of captaincy and the price-tag. Pant had a good season in his last year with Delhi in 2024, but hasn't been able to kick on from there, looking like a shadow of the player he was in his monstrous 2018 ...