Former South African captain Faf du Plessis offered his views on Rishabh Pant’s struggles to establish himself as a consistent match-winner in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
The wicketkeeper-batter rose to fame through his fearless strokeplay, capable of changing the course of a match in a matter of few overs. However, his performance has experienced a significant dip over the past few IPL seasons.
After joining Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) for a record INR 27 crore, Pant failed to leave a mark in the 2025 season, scoring only 269 runs in 13 innings at an average of 24.45 and a strike rate of 133.17.
Speaking on JioStar, Du Plessis advised Pant to refine his "all over the place" approach into a more reliable blueprint for consistency.
While noting that Pant's methods appear scattered in both Tests and T20s, he suggested the southpaw must hone his decision-making to evolve from an inconsistent player into a 60-70% reliable run-scorer.
"Even in his method in Test cricket, it looks all over the place. But there must be something in his head that says this is the blueprint I want to play with in Test cricket. It's the same in T20 cricket. Just figuring out what your game plan looks like to give yourself the best chance of not being a 1 or 2 out of 10 player and instead be a 60 to 70% player, where you can have consistency," Du Plessis said.
Du Plessis further mentioned that Pant’s approach can appear "frantic" to outsiders, often resulting from having too many options in his head.
"It boils down to him having too many options in his head. It feels like he can score a six off every ball in every part of the ground. But you still need a method even for T20 batting. With the great T20 players, you have an idea of where they are going to score their boundaries and how they'll work around their weaknesses. But with Pant, you feel like he's always on the edge. You feel like he can get out at any stage, and it's almost frantic at some stages," he added.
In the end, Faf du Plessis questioned the intense demand for Rishabh Pant in the IPL auction, calling it an "obsession" despite the left-hander’s modest T20 numbers and recent underperformance.
"You look at players like Pant in the auction and ask why there is such a big craze over someone like him if the game of T20 has evolved so much in terms of numbers from the analysts and coaches who are highly detailed on numbers. If you look at his T20 numbers, it's not that great. So why is there such an obsession with him? Even in the previous auction, everyone wanted him in their team," he remarked.
