Skipper Rishabh Pant hails THIS uncapped spinner as major `positive` for LSG

Following their six-wicket loss to Sunrisers Hyderabad in their previous IPL 2025 match, Lucknow Super Giants captain Rishabh Pant reflected on both the positives and negatives of what has been a roller-coaster season, particularly for leg-spinner Digvesh Singh Rathi.

Rathi has been handed a one-match suspension after once again performing his controversial `tick-the-notebook` celebration following the dismissal of Sunrisers Hyderabad opener Abhishek Sharma.

“Rathi has come up nicely for us. In his first season, the way he bowled was one of the positives, but you need to keep improving yourself and get better and better as the seasons go,” said Pant, during the post-match presentation.

Pant remarked that the season had the potential to be one of the best for the franchise, but injuries made it difficult to fill key gaps in the squad.

“It could have been one of our best seasons, but coming into the tournament, we had a lot of gaps, injuries and as a team, we decided not to talk about that, but it became difficult to fill those gaps for us. The way we planned the auction, if we had the same bowling…but this is cricket, sometimes things go your way and sometimes they do not, we take pride in the way we played and take the positives from the season rather than the negative side,” said the 27-year-old.

The defeat against SRH officially ended Lucknow`s hopes of qualifying for the IPL 2025 playoffs. As a result, the battle for the final playoff spot is now between Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals.

Despite the disappointment, Pant lauded his team`s efforts, praising both the batting and bowling units for their resilience throughout the campaign.

“We have a strong batting lineup and have enough firepower, and that is the biggest positive for the season, even for bowlers. A lot of times, they bowled in good areas, but they were patchy. We knew we were 10 runs short because the wicket was playing well, like I said before, we are playing well in patches and unable to close the momentum whenever it turned up on our side,” the LSG captain said.

“The first half of the season, we played really well, but the second half it became tougher and tougher to catch up with the teams on the brighter side,” Rishabh Pant continued.

Entering the IPL 2025 with a heavy price tag of Rs 27 crore, the left-hander failed to live up to his reputation. In 12 matches, Pant was able to score just 135 runs with an average of 12.27.

So far in IPL 2025, Gujarat Titans, Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Punjab Kings are the three teams that have qualified for the playoffs.

(With ANI Inputs)

This article first appeared on Mid Day