Jaffer: Pant 'needs to get better at rotating strike'

Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) captain Rishabh Pant showed signs of a return to form with his 49-ball 63 against Chennai Super Kings (CSK), even though his side lost by five wickets. Coming into this game, he had scored just 40 runs off 50 balls across five innings in IPL 2025.

It was a strange knock, though. Pant walked in at No. 4, after LSG had lost two early wickets, and moved to 27 off just 16 balls. But he slowed down considerably after that and was on 38 off 38 at one point. He struggled, in particular, against Noor Ahmad, scoring just six off 15 balls he faced from him. Ten of those were dots.

In all, Pant's innings included 21 dot balls. For comparison, Virat Kohli's 62 not out off 45 balls against Rajasthan Royals (RR) on Sunday had only nine dots. Among those who have faced at least 50 balls this season, Pant's dot-ball percentage of 48.48 is the worst. With big shots not coming off as often as he would have liked, this has impacted his strike rate, which currently stands at 104.04.

"I don't know whether he looks to do that [rotate strike]," former India opener Wasim Jaffer said on ESPNcricinfo TimeOut. "Kohli is a master at that. He gets off strike so nicely as he can play all around. But Pant sometimes does get stuck, and that's the issue. Then he goes for that big shot. I just feel he needs to get better at rotating strike as well."

Jaffer also wants Pant to target the straight boundaries more, against both spinners and fast bowlers. Of his four fours and as many sixes on Monday, only one came down the ground.

"I feel he never looks to hit straight," Jaffer said. "He always looks to go towards the leg side, towards square leg, cow corner. He hit one straight six right towards the end [against CSK]. Otherwise, at the start of the innings, he was always looking to go towards the leg side, or that reverse scoop that he played, but that was the only thing.

"A lot of the time, the teams stack up the fielders in that area as well. So I think he needs to access down the ground a lot more."

Abhinav Mukund, Jaffer's co-panelist on the show, said, "I still feel Pant has so much to offer when he is moving around, contrary to what you hear a lot of commentators and players saying that he needs to stay still and hit. I like Pant when he is moving around. It feels like he is more proactive, accessing over cover, accessing straight. It felt like that cover area was closed today for business for him and that's a bit concerning."