Aakash Chopra says Rishabh Pant should have faith despite poor IPL 2025

Former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra said Rishabh Pant should have faith despite a poor run in IPL 2025. Lucknow Super Giants was knocked out of the playoffs race after suffering a six-wicket loss against Sunrisers Hyderabad at Lucknow on Monday.

Pant once again failed to deliver the goods as he was dismissed after scoring only seven runs. The southpaw was caught and bowled by Sri Lankan pacer Eshan Malinga. The left-hander has scored 135 runs in 11 innings at an average of 12.27 and a strike rate of 100 in the ongoing IPL 2025.

“Success might teach you a few things, but it is failure that gives you the lessons that actually change your mindset forever—and for good. So, he must have obviously thought about a lot of things regarding this particular season. He’s not a regular in the Indian T20 team either, so obviously, he wanted to make sure this was the big season—playing with a new franchise, building a good team together. It just hasn’t turned out that way,” Chopra said on JioStar.

“His own form, the lessons to be learned—whether you now want to approach T20 cricket differently, or decide, ‘This is the template I’m going to follow, and I’ll just learn to be patient’—because that’s what happens when you go through a bad patch. It feels like everything is going wrong. The nights are longer, the days even longer. And then you learn, and then you bounce back. That’s what all of us have done. There isn’t a human being—at least not a cricketer on this planet—who hasn’t gone through a bad patch,” he added.

“This was a patch to forget, a nightmare. But the good thing about nightmares is that eventually, you wake up—and they end,” Chopra concluded.

Pant has managed double digit scores on a solitary occasion in the last four innings. The left-hander was bought for a whopping amount of INR 27 crore in the mega auction, making him the most expensive player in IPL history.

LSG will next take on the Gujarat Titans at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Thursday.