Rishabh Pant Backed To Win IPL Title For LSG

Rishabh Pant to lead LSG in IPL 2026 [Source: @SportsByND/x]

Rishabh Pant has been backed by his head coach Justin Langer to lead the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) franchise to title glory in the upcoming IPL 2026 season. Having made his debut for the franchise last year, the team failed to make it to the playoffs of the tournament.

Coach Langer believes that since Pant has now become familiar with the LSG environment and with his teammates, he will be able to put up a much better performance this time around.

LSG coach issues stern Rishabh Pant warning to all franchises

LSG coach Justin Langer has backed team captain Rishabh Pant to come up with an improved performance this time around, both as a batter and as a leader. While speaking on JioHotstar, the former Australian Test opener praised Pant, and claimed that he was trying “too hard” to impress the franchise last year since it was his maiden season with the LSG.

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He said “If we see Rishabh laughing, smiling and having fun, he’ll be a brilliant captain, and that’s what we learned last year. He (had) joined a new franchise, trying hard to impress, which is natural.”

Justin Langer also added that since the LSG skipper is already settled with the franchise, he will be able to express himself more freely this season and translate that comfort into match-winning performances.

He added “But we’re already seeing a lighter Rishabh (now). He knows the players now and we have got his back. He’s smiling a lot and dancing. When he’s like that and starts playing cricket, there’s no one more exciting to watch in the world.”

Rishabh Pant’s debut to forget for the LSG

Rishabh Pant was acquired by the LSG franchise for a whopping Rs. 27 crores last year during the IPL 2025 auction. However, the blistering wicketkeeper-batter failed to justify the auction hype as he underwent one of the worst IPL campaigns of his career.

In 14 matches of the tournament, the dynamic left-hander managed to aggregate just 269 runs in 13 innings at an average of 24.45. Moreover, Pant aggregated 118* of those runs in a single innings, thus signifying his topsy-turvy campaign.

Even as captain, Rishabh Pant led the LSG franchise to just six wins and eight defeats from 14 matches as they finished seventh on the 10-team points table.

Rishabh Pant and co. to face Delhi Capitals first up

Under the leadership of Rishabh Pant, the LSG franchise will commence its IPL 2026 campaign with a match against Delhi Capitals. The match will be hosted by the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow on April 1 next week and the action will commence from 7:30 PM IST onwards.

As per the IPL 2026 schedule unveiled by the BCCI earlier this month, the team will subsequently travel to Hyderabad and Kolkata over the next week to take on hosts SRH and KKR on April 5 and April 9 respectively.

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