“Stop Retaining Them”: Rishabh Pant’s ‘Excuse’ Behind LSG’s Poor IPL 2025 Show Gets Sharp Retort

The drummer of the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) counter, Rishabh Pant, cited the vast list of team injuries as the biggest reason behind the team’s bad show in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. After LSG was eliminated from the playoff race, Pant said that the fact that the team had not obtained the services of their main quisters – Mayank Yadav and Mohin Khan – led to their disappointing show this year. However, the former India cricket player Mohammad Kaif gave the LSG management a frank response on “the excuse”, saying that the owners should not have kept such players subject to injuries.

Before the IPL MEGA Auction last year, LSG had kept Nicholas Pooran (RS 21 Brove), Ravi Bishnoi (RS 11 Brove), Mayank Yadav (RS 11 Brove), Mohsin Khan (RS 4 Brooc) and Ayush Badoni (RS 4 Brove). From the lot, Mayank barely played 2-3 games while Mohin could not appear in a single match this year.

“I prefer to pay money to hold the players who can play all season. The LSG bowling attack is subject to injuries. I am not saying that injuries do not occur, but for the players who are more sensitive to them, stop keeping them for a lot of money. Instead, recover them at auction,” said Kaif after the match.

Even Akash Deep, one of the Pacers LSG bought auction, was not available for the whole season. At the end of the match against SRH on Monday, Pant cited the gaps left by the absence of these players as the reason for the team’s failure to achieve their potential.

“It could certainly have been one of our best seasons, but by entering the tournament, we had a lot of gaps, injuries, S and as a team, we decided not to talk about it, but it became difficult to fill these shortcomings for us,” said Pant after the match.

“The way we planned the auction, if we had the same bowling alley … But it’s cricket, sometimes things happen in your sense and sometimes they don’t, we are proud of the way we played and take the positive points of the season rather than on the negative side,” he added.