Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) captain Rishabh Pant was seen in a tense conversation with franchise owner Sanjiv Goenka after the team lost to Delhi Capitals (DC) in their IPL 2026 opening game in Lucknow on April 1.
Asked to bat first, LSG could only manage 141 runs on the board, with Pant managing 7, Aiden Markram scoring 11, and Nicholas Pooran adding only 8. Lungi Ngidi and T Natarajan took three wickets each.
LSG bowlers gave a ray of hope to their team as DC was reduced to 26/4. But then Sameer Rizvi (70*) and Tristan Stubbs (39*) took the game away with a 119-run partnership and won DC the game by 6 wickets.
Following the game, images of Goenka talking to Pant were shown, but no audio was available. Clips and pictures of the conversation, in which Coach Langer was also involved, swiftly went popular on the internet. The video seemed to show a somewhat heated debate.
See here:
Sanjiv Goenka also shared an encouraging post for his team and stated, "This is a long season, and moments like these are part of building something meaningful. I have full confidence in our captain and the team to respond with strength. To our fans, thank you for your support at Ekana today; we will come back stronger. The story of @LucknowIPL this season is far from written.”
Fans reacted to Sanjiv Goenka’s heated discussion with Rishabh Pant and recalled a similar incident that happened with ex-LSG captain KL Rahul.
Here are some reactions:
