‘Management Is Seriously Considering…’- Is It All Over For Rishabh Pant At LSG? Tom Moody Hints At Captaincy Changes

Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) endured yet another below-par season in the Indian Premier League (IPL), finishing in 10th place. The Sanjiv Goenka side won only 10 matches (out of 28) in the 2025 and 2026 seasons. One of the cornerstones of this failure has been put on the shoulders of Rishabh Pant, having bought him for Rs 27 crore, the costliest player in the IPL auction.

The problem has not been just with Pant’s leadership. The Indian left-hander wicket-keeper batsman managed just 581 runs in 28 games across the two seasons, with just a single century to show. In the ongoing season, the left-hander scored just 312 runs at a staggering average of 28.36.

This lean patch reflected on the form of LSG, which ended at the bottom of the table with just four victories. The Rishabh Pant-led side wrapped up their campaign with a loss to Punjab Kings, a result that kept the latter’s slim playoff hopes alive. Last year, the team also endured torrid times and finished in seventh position in IPL 2025, with just 6 wins.

Is It Over For Rishab Pant With LSG?

Speaking at the post-match press conference after their last game of the season, the LSG director of Cricket indicated that the top management of LSG is considering a change in leadership. “When it comes to the leadership of the franchise, Management is seriously considering leadership changes and may go for a complete reset in the future,” he said.

“And you do have to wonder whether that is a pressure that is reflected in his performance with the bat. I know that this season has been a difficult season for us, but we will reflect on it, we’ll take time, we’ll reflect on it. We’ll consider all things,” added the former Australian cricketer.

He admitted that the team had not lived up to their expectations or standards and added that the franchise leadership would seriously consider what the future might look like. “Like every department, when you do reflect on a season, we will be making some considered decisions, but it certainly looks like that we’re needing to consider a reset,” Moody further explained.

Was Rishabh The Only Problem?

Although Pant has been made the scapegoat in this fall, there have been factors that have worked in tandem that led to this disastrous campaign. The major one in that catastrophic recipe has been “too many cooks” who have indeed “spoiled the broth” for LSG.

In other words, there were too many people constantly putting their input on the daily working of the franchise, right from the top to the bottom level, including making important cricketing decisions. During IPL 2026, Pant had raised this point again and again. “And too many minds don’t make it easy on the ground,” Pant had said after LSG lost to Kolkata Knight Riders via Super Over on April 27 at the Ekana Stadium.

Pant’s “too many minds” refers to the star-studded backroom staff at LSG, which included head coach Justin Langer, Moody, strategic advisor Kane Williamson, assistant coach Lance Klusener, and bowling coach Bharat Arun.

For now, Rishabh Pant will join the Indian camp for the upcoming series against Afghanistan starting next month. The left-hander has been relieved of his Test vice-captaincy, with KL Rahul taking over the role. Pant, however, remains part of the Test squad for the one-off match against Afghanistan in New Chandigarh from June 6, but has not been selected for the ODI series.