20 overs won't save you in T20s, that's been our story: Pant

Pant scored a hundred to get back in form but his bowlers could not defend a target of 228 © BCCI/IPL
Lucknow Super Giants' inconsistent campaign in IPL 2025 came to an end with their opponents, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, chasing down a massive 228-run target with eight balls to spare, in Lucknow, on Tuesday. In many ways, the final league game of the season was merely a reflection of how the campaign had panned out for the Rishabh Pant-led side: some exceptional performances littered with moments of being constantly pushed on the backfoot.

With 12 points to take home after 14 games, Pant conceded that the kind of inconsistent cricket his team played, the results were unlikely to be any better for his side. "Eventually you got to play 40 overs of good cricket," Pant admitted at the post-match presentation following the loss against RCB. "20 overs will definitely not save you in a T20 game and that's been our story. There were a lot of injury concerns before the tournament, that's something that hurt us going through the season."

Nonetheless, looking at the positives for the side from the season, Pant said, "The way our batting unit has come up, there have been some special bowling performances also. Digvesh Rathi is one of them, Avesh bowled some crucial overs. We've been getting chances but we weren't able to maintain it for a longer period of time."

Much like Pant, Zaheer Khan, LSG's mentor, too added that a host of injuries in his team's pace department hurt the plans of the side, for which despite a few experiments, they couldn't find a settled attack.

"When you start off the IPL season, obviously your first goal is to think of the playoffs, how you are going to get there, what kind of plans you are going to have," Zaheer said on Tuesday. "We obviously made the conscious effort of not paying much attention to the challenges which we are facing in the beginning of the season, which is losing a few of our main bowlers to injuries, and still going to find a way of putting up games of cricket together and finding ways of winning the match. That is something that was the process which everyone was aligned to.

"Looking at that, we have had a decent season from that point of view, but yes, we fell short. Putting the game together was a challenge which was evident right throughout the season. Those are the learnings which we have from the season.

Zaheer then went on to elaborate on the positives for the team from the season. "There are positives, a lot of positives. The stability was evident with regard to batting, but with regard to bowling, we were trying to figure out the combinations, we were trying to figure out the options which can get us over the line. That is something that was the story right throughout the season... The season is done, but the journey has just begun as Lucknow Super Giants franchise."

Much of the shortcomings in the pace department was covered up by LSG's overseas top-order, who formed one of the most lethal trio. Mitchell Marsh, Aiden Markram and Nicholas Pooran combined to add 1596 runs, at a strike rate of over 168. However, Pant's drop in form and the inability of the middle order to cash in on those strong starts repeatedly hurt the side.

Pant ended the campaign on a strong note, smashing a 61-ball 118*, which according to Zaheer will hold LSG in a strong stead as they look to build on from here for the next season.

"He (Pant) has been good as a leader, that is something which was a bright positive for us throughout the season. The form with the bat definitely was something which was a learning experience for him as well, to have this kind of a season. But the ability, calibre is something which no one has any doubt about. That is the way we are looking at it, so we are happy that he finished on a very strong note. That is the calibre which he has, that is the impact he can have on the game."

With the focus now shifting to national duties for Pant, the LSG mentor didn't elaborate much on how the team will break down this campaign. "There'll be a lot of areas where we'll be talking and looking to improve ourselves but the season is just ending, don't know where the talk is going to go," Pant said. "Just want to switch off for a few days, not think about cricket and then the England series is coming up and just preparing for that in a good frame of mind."