NEW DELHI: The roar inside the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow was deafening as Rishabh Pant walked out to open the innings for Lucknow Super Giants against Gujarat Titans in their IPL 2025 clash on Saturday. Accompanied by Aiden Markram, Pant’s return to the top of the order was greeted with thunderous applause and chants, as fans welcomed the bold move with open arms. This marked a significant moment in Pant’s T20 journey.
Before this match, he had opened the batting in T20s just 21 times across formats, scoring 644 runs at an impressive strike rate of 162.21 and an average of 32.2, with five fifties and a century to his name.
However, in the IPL, Pant had rarely featured as an opener—doing so only four times back in his debut season in 2016.
His returns as an opener in IPL 2016 were a mixed bag: 69 off 40, 2 off 8, 32 off 26, and 1 off 2.
Since then, Pant had firmly established himself in the middle order, where he played most of his match-winning knocks. His return to the top now, after nearly nine years, reflects a strategic shift from the Lucknow franchise and an intent to maximise his explosive batting in the Powerplay overs.
The last time Pant opened in a T20 match was for India against New Zealand in Napier in 2022. He scored 11 runs as the match was ended in a tie (DLS Method).
Pant as an opener in T20s (before today)
Inns: 21
Runs: 644
Avg: 32.2
SR: 162.21
50/100: 5/1
Get the latest IPL 2025 updates on Times of India, including match schedules, team squads, points table and IPL live score for CSK, MI, RCB, KKR, SRH, LSG, DC, GT, PBKS, and RR. Don’t miss the list of players in the race for IPL Orange Cap and IPL Purple cap.
