Rishabh Pant will be eager to push his case for a return to India’s limited-overs sides, and the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League could provide the perfect stage to do so. The wicketkeeper batter became the costliest buy in the auction after attracting a massive bid of INR 27 crore, but his campaign with the bat failed to match the hype. Apart from one century, his performances remained underwhelming through the tournament, and the hundred arrived when his side was already out of the race. Pant finished the season with 269 runs from 14 matches, his best being an unbeaten 118. He ended with a strike rate of 133.16, numbers that fell short of the expectations surrounding him.
Sharing his views on the pressure surrounding Pant ahead of the IPL 2026 season, former South Africa captain Faf du Plessis said the wicketkeeper batter could be among the players facing the most scrutiny, especially after a difficult campaign last year and the weight of a massive auction price tag.
“For me, he is probably the player in the IPL who’s under the most pressure this season. We always talk about the price-tag pressure. Some guys flourish under that price-tag pressure, and some guys don’t. The last season for him was a real tough season. The team struggled and his runs also struggled, the way that he batted,” Faf du Plessis said on JioHotstar.
“How are LSG going to maximise the bowling?”
Continuing his assessment, Du Plessis pointed out that the pressure on Pant will not only rest on his batting but also on his role as captain and on ensuring the team performs better than last season.
“So there is all that pressure when he comes into this season, and the expectation on what the team is going to do. With a batting-heavy team, how are they going to maximise the bowling? If he is scoring runs as a captain, it takes pressure off you in the first instance, but then there is the second instance, which is the team, and last year, both of those had big red crosses to their names,” Du Plessis observed.
