Rishabh Pant is enduring a forgettable IPL 2025 with the bat. Pant, the costliest player in the IPL history at Rs 27 crore, has managed just 19 runs — 0, 15, 2, 2 — from four innings at a grim average of 4.75 and a massively underwhelming strike-rate of 59.37.
For KKR, it has been a season of mixed returns so far. After early defeats to Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Mumbai Indians, KKR roared back to form in their last outing—a commanding win over Sunrisers Hyderabad—following a long-awaited middle-order resurgence. Their costliest buy Venkatesh Iyer finally delivered while Rinku Singh and veteran Ajinkya Rahane provided vital contributions.
The problem with KKR is their opening partnership as duo of Quinton de Kock and Sunil Narine has struggled to give them the flying starts. Their highest stand this season has been 44 runs while the openers have managed 4, 1, and 14 in the other games. Narine has looked scratchy and inconsistent, raising questions over his role at the top. It wouldn’t be surprising if Raghuvanshi is pushed up alongside de Kock.
Squads
Kolkata Knight Riders: Quinton de Kock (wk), Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane ©, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Manish Pandey, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Spencer Johnson, Varun Chakaravarthy, Anrich Nortje, Vaibhav Arora, Anukul Roy, Luvnith Sisodia, Moeen Ali, Rovman Powell, Mayank Markande, Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Chetan Sakariya.
Lucknow Super Giants: Rishabh Pant (c & wk), Abdul Samad, Akash Deep, Akash Singh, Avesh Khan, Ayush Badoni, Matthew Breetzke, Yuvraj Chaudhary, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Himmat Singh, Shamar Joseph, Aryan Juyal, Arshin Kulkarni, Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh, David Miller, Nicholas Pooran, Prince Yadav, Digvesh Rathi, Ravi Bishnoi, Shahbaz Ahmed, Manimaran Siddharth, Shardul Thakur and Mayank Yadav
