'LSG's Babar Azam' — Pant's ₹27 Crore Nightmare Gets Worse

Rishabh Pant faced three deliveries from Nandre Burger on Wednesday night at the Ekana International Stadium. He tried to take on the South African pacer, the ball took the edge, and Dhruv Jurel — his former India teammate, now keeping for the opposition — completed a regulation catch. Duck. The 12th of Pant's T20 career. The most expensive one in IPL history.

He wasn't alone. Ayush Badoni and Aiden Markram also fell for ducks as LSG crashed to 11/3 inside 2.5 overs while chasing a modest 160. Mitchell Marsh fought a lone hand with 55, but the match was over long before he fell. Final score: 119 all out. Defeat by 40 runs. Fourth loss in a row.

Pant was seen scolding himself as he walked back to the dugout. Given what the internet had to say, he got off easy.

That's the comparison now doing the rounds. "Rishabh Pant is LSG's Babar Azam." In cricket's current lexicon, that's not a compliment — it means a premium-priced asset producing diminishing returns in the format that matters most. Babar's T20 decline has been Pakistan cricket's recurring nightmare. Pant's is fast becoming Sanjiv Goenka's.

Look at the numbers. In seven innings this IPL, Pant has scored 147 runs at an average of 21 and a strike rate of 132. For a ₹27 crore investment — the highest price tag in IPL auction history — that's not underperformance. That's a rounding error. Three of his seven innings ended in single digits. Only one crossed fifty.

Zoom out further and it gets grimmer. Across 20 innings for LSG spanning two seasons, Pant has managed 416 runs at an average below 25. The strike rate barely touches 130. These are middle-order utility numbers, not franchise-player numbers.

Navjot Singh Sidhu hasn't held back on Pant's form this season. After yet another cheap dismissal, Sidhu's verdict was clinical: the bowlers aren't getting Pant out — Pant is getting himself out. It's a damning distinction. When a keeper-batter of Pant's talent is manufacturing his own dismissals, the problem isn't skill. It's decision-making under pressure.

Piyush Chawla piled on after the RR match, criticising Pant's shot selection. Chasing 160 with the entire innings ahead of him, Pant chose to attack Nandre Burger in the powerplay instead of respecting the situation. The aggression that once defined his genius is now the weapon he keeps turning on himself.

After the 40-run hammering, LSG pacer Mohsin Khan fronted the media. What he said was revealing — not for its content, but for the effort required to say it.

Read that quote again: "a little affected." Four consecutive defeats. Ninth on the table. Lost seven of their last nine home matches stretching back to IPL 2025. A home win percentage of 22.2%. That's not "a little affected" — that's systemic failure.

The batting collapses are the headline, but the malaise runs deeper. LSG started IPL 2026 with two wins from three matches. They've lost every game since. The trajectory is steep and pointing down, and their next fixture offers no relief — it's Delhi Capitals at the Ekana on April 26.

Sanjiv Goenka paid ₹27 crore for Rishabh Pant at the IPL 2025 mega auction — a record that may stand for years, partly because nobody else would bid that high again for a player who's done this little with the opportunity. Last season was supposed to be the adjustment year. This season was supposed to be the payoff. Instead, Pant's IPL career at LSG is starting to resemble the sunk-cost fallacy in real time.

The question isn't whether Pant is talented. He is. The question is whether the weight of ₹27 crore, the captaincy burden, and a losing team around him have turned one of cricket's most instinctive batters into something he was never supposed to be — cautious, overthinking, and brittle. Sidhu sees it. Chawla sees it. The fans screaming "Babar Azam" see it. The only question is whether Goenka sees it too — and what he does about it.