Mumbai: On the eve of the Lucknow Super Giants match against Mumbai Indians, after finishing his batting stint, Rishabh Pant caught up with Rohit Sharma. The camaraderie between the two was evident. Sitting next to the Mumbai Indians nets in the middle of the Wankhede Stadium, they talked for more than an hour.After two tough seasons with Lucknow Super Giants, the jury is out on Rishabh Pant, the T20 player. His numbers from the last two IPL seasons reflect poorly on him as both captain and batter.His 204 runs in nine innings have come at a strike rate of 128.30, and LSG sits at the bottom of the table with seven defeats in nine games. It is an extension of his form from last season, where he finished with 269 runs in 14 games. His tally reached over 200 runs owing to a 118 in an inconsequential last game of the season. LSG finished seventh in the 2025 IPL.But, ask Rohit, and he will differ. For him Pant is a valuable T20 player. When he captained the India T20 side, Pant played every match of the 2024 ICC T20 World Cup, keeping wickets and batting at No. 3. On pitches in the United States and the Caribbean, which offered different challenges from movement to spin, Pant’s strike rate was average, as it was for most batters, but he made vital contributions, scoring 171 runs at an average of 24.43.Overall, Pant’s T20I career was going smoothly. It is for a reason that LSG dished out a record ₹27 crore in the 2025 mega auction, making him the most expensive player in IPL auction history. LSG’s think tank followed a successful template – keeper-batter and captain, like Mahendra Singh Dhoni and CSK.Two seasons later, things have not gone according to script.For a player with Pant’s potential, given the unbelievable feats he has achieved in Test matches, he remains an enigma in white-ball cricket. For a daring strokeplayer, limited overs cricket should be the place where he shines the most, but surprisingly, he is yet to crack the code. The fearlessness and clarity he is known for are missing... as is the madness.Against the Mumbai Indians, walking in at 123/2 at the start of the ninth over, on a good batting strip, the stage was perfectly set for him to take the game out of the opposition’s reach. Pant managed only a 10-ball 15 as his team failed to cash in on the excellent platform set up by Nicholas Pooran’s 21-ball 63. LSG frittered away a strong position to lose their seventh match out of nine.Players like Pant are at their best when they lead by example. Scoring runs builds confidence and confidence, in turn, allows him to make decisions without fear of failure.But as things stand, his below-par batting has affected his decision-making, and the lack of role clarity is one reason for LSG’s woes. Pant, himself, has batted at three different positions. He started by opening the batting, then batted at No. 3, and against MI, at No. 4. This has also unsettled Aiden Markram and Nicholas Pooran. Pooran was restored to No. 3 on Monday and the difference in his output was evident.Ask any bowler and they’ll tell you Pant is among the most feared batters in international cricket. Feared because he is unpredictable; feared because he will always go for the jugular.Coach Justin Langer gave the example of how just a couple of days before Monday’s IPL match, Pant was at his free-flowing best in LSG’s practice game.“It’s funny, we played a practice game here two days ago, and Rishy, I think, got maybe 95 off 40 balls or 30 balls or something, and you’re just looking at that game and going, ‘oh my god, that’s Rishabh Pant at his very best’,” Langer said. “He’s a very good player, we know that. We’ve seen in Test cricket destroy teams at No. 5, and we felt today with that, and the way he played just two days ago, after we had a seven-day break, we thought that might be a good option for the team,” said Langer.Handling the scrutiny on an IPL captain is difficult and can easily bog you down.“I don’t think money has to do anything with it,” Langer said. “Leadership is a tough position, and you carry a lot of pressure. He knows he carries a lot of pressure for the team, and he does it, like all of us, with a smile on his face 98 percent of the time. It’s the 2 percent that’s hard, to be honest. But he’s chipping away, he’s working hard, and he’s had a match-winning game earlier in the season. I love it when we see him smiling and playing that swashbuckling style of play.”