HOT TEA ON RISHABH PANT ☕️
It has taken me a lot of courage to come and share what I’ve been witnessing for the past month being around the LSG dressing room. I have been associated with LSG for this season. It was a dream come true to be with an IPL team. For all the negativity the team gets, being part of one truly feels amazing. Unfortunately, I was not aware of what goes beyond matches and celebrations. I have thought a lot before writing this post, but I think LSG’s terrible performance has a lot to do with what’s been happening inside.
Rishabh is the face of LSG, and he appears very friendly as a person. But his performance since last season has really taken a toll on him and it’s now very visible.
I’ve seen him misbehave with younger players quite often. It’s one thing to have fun and pull legs, but at times he has been outright disrespectful. Very volatile behavior. You would see him being friendly with someone and immediately snap another moment. Not captain like. During one of the intense discussions, he threw and broke his phone, has been abusing Langer in the dugout. This has now started to reflect in his on-air interviews as well.
With such bad performance, you would want the captain to lead and guide. He literally sits quite in all team meetings. Not sure if it has something to do with Langer or Moody but he barely adds his opinions or inputs. But if he wants something done a certain way, he will not care if others like it or not. It was his decision to make Badoni open and Markram was straight up upset with it. Badoni was not comfortable either. Rishabh didn’t care. Even after the first failure, Markram wanted to open but Pant didn’t let him. He doesn’t listen to coaches. It was his decision to get Pooran to open in the super over. Everyone advised against it, but he was adamant to do it.
Will you believe that he dropped Mukul to get Himmat Singh? Yes, MUKUL! While all were appreciating Mukul’s innings against KKR and so was he after the match, I think the exposure and popularity Mukul gained in the coming days got to him. From IPL’s official handle to all sports influencer, Mukul was being loved and appreciated by all. People in the camp also started hyping him up but I guess the Rishabh was not okay with Mukul getting so much limelight. Right after the next match, he suggested dropping Mukul. Management didn’t take it well but after every inning of Mukul, he kept giving the “I said so!” look. Mukul is now under a lot of pressure to perform or be dropped! Kept favouring Avesh over Akash Singh because of favouritism.
I think the 27 Cr limelight has really gotten into him. Trust me, I am sure all-star players would have such things floating around but I guess it all works as long as they are delivering results. But Pant has been failing miserably as a player and a captain! Lucknow deserves better. LSG deserves better! Fans deserve better!