3 min readUpdated: Mar 24, 2026 03:32 PM IST
Former South Africa captain Faf du Plessis minced no words as he criticised India wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant’s lack of game plan in T20 cricket while also questioning his record IPL price tag.
Pant, who entered the IPL 2025 mega auction as a marquee player, shattered all records when he was snapped up by Lucknow Super Giants for a whopping Rs 27.50 crore. The left-hander, however, endured a middling season as Lucknow failed to qualify for the Playoffs last year. Gearing up to find his place back in the national white-ball set-up this year, Pant has been asked to introspect by du Plessis, who questioned the batter’s methods.
“Even in his method in Test cricket, it looks all over the place. But there must be something in his head that says this is the blueprint I want to play with in Test cricket. It’s the same in T20 cricket. Just figuring out what your game plan looks like to give yourself the best chance of not being a 1 or 2 out of 10 player and instead be a 60 to 70% player, where you can have consistency,” du Plessis told Star Sports.
du Plessis said Pant was bogged down by his own range of options with the bat.
“It boils down to him having too many options in his head. It feels like he can score a six off every ball in every part of the ground. But you still need a method even for T20 batting. With the great T20 players, you have an idea of where they are going to score their boundaries and how they’ll work around their weaknesses. But with Pant, you feel like he’s always on the edge. You feel like he can get out at any stage, and it’s almost frantic at some stages,” observed du Plessis.
‘T20 numbers not great’
du Plessis wondered why teams were willing to shell out huge sums for a player like Pant who holds an average T20 record.
“You look at players like Pant in the auction and ask why there is such a big craze over someone like him if the game of T20 has evolved so much in terms of numbers from the analysts and coaches who are highly detailed on numbers. If you look at his T20 numbers, it’s not that great. So why is there such an obsession with him? Even in the previous auction, everyone wanted him in their team,” said the former Royal Challengers Bengaluru skipper.
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The weight of expectations coupled with the LSG captaicy did not sit well with Pant, who managed only 269 runs at a 24.45 average last year, his lowest ever in an edition of the tournament.
