Rishabh Pant vs Shreyas Iyer, the contrasting cases of IPL’s costly buys
LSG’s Rishabh Pant has only made 19 runs from his first four IPL 2025 matches, while Shreyas Iyer has batted beautifully for Punjab Kings.
LSG’s Rishabh Pant has only made 19 runs from his first four IPL 2025 matches, while Shreyas Iyer has batted beautifully for Punjab Kings.
LSG’s Rishabh Pant has only made 19 runs from his first four IPL 2025 matches, while Shreyas Iyer has batted beautifully for Punjab Kings.
Rishabh Pant failed to deliver with the bat for the fourth IPL 2025 match in a row when he was dismissed for just two runs by Mumbai Indians' Hardik Pandya in Lucknow on April 4.
Lucknow Super Giants splashed ₹27 crore on the left-hander, the highest spent on any player in IPL history. But if they were to, hypothetically, recoup a crore for every run Pant scored this season, the franchise would still find themselves in loss.
Pant has managed only 19 runs in four innings -- 0 vs DC, 15 vs SRH, 2 vs PBKS, 2 vs MI. His latest dismissal had all the markings of a batter lacking confidence. Pant aimed to work a Hardik Pandya slow ball onto the onside, only to get a leading edge that was gobbled up at mid-off.
If it is the added pressure of captaining the franchise that has distracted him from his batting, at least a couple of franchises would instantly disagree. Shreyas Iyer and Ajinkya Rahane have both ably led Punjab Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders respectively while making significant contributions with their bats.
Iyer has hit 149 runs in two matches, including an unbeaten 97, and helping Punjab win both their matches so far. Rahane has added 123 from four innings, including a fifty and won KKR two matches, with a big statement victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Eden Gardens on April 2. Rahane replaced Iyer as KKR captain this season. By contrast, Lucknow lost two of their first three matches this season, under Pant's leadership.
Iyer, too, went into the season with a heavy price tag, having signed up for a whopping sum of ₹26.75 crore. It was the highest spent on a player, at least for a few minutes, before Pant's name came up during the Mega Auction in Jeddah last November.