"It's a 50-50 call" - Pant on opening for rest of season

Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) captain Rishabh Pant said it will be a "50-50 call" on whether he will continue to open through the season or not, but confirmed he will bat in the top three after he walked out with Mitchell Marsh in their first game of IPL 2026 against Delhi Capitals. "I think it's a 50-50 call, but we'll see," Pant said after their six-wicket defeat. "But [you'll] definitely see me in the top order." Pant had opened once last season, when Marsh was unavailable, but had not opened in T20s since November 2022. On Wednesday, Pant made 7 off 9 and was run out at the non-striker's end in unfortunate fashion, when the bowler Mukesh Kumar got a hand to deflect Marsh's straight drive onto the stumps. Last season, Markram and Marsh formed a successful opening pair, and had the second-most partnership runs in the season. Markram's most successful IPL season featured 445 runs scored at a strike rate of 148.82. The move also saw Nicholas Pooran pushed down the order from one-down, the position from where he played 12 of his 14 games last season as he racked up 524 runs, striking at 196.25. In fact, LSG sent Ayush Badoni above Pooran when they lost their second wicket in the sixth over. "I think the idea was very simple. Like, [Pooran] is taking the charge in the middle overs. "I'm batting up the order, so he's no longer batting in the top order," Pant stated. "We wanted to investigate that lefty-righty option at the top, so the swap between Pooran and Badoni happened." So, they couldn't bowl a left-arm spinner. I unfortunately left at the wrong moment. "Otherwise, Axar [Patel] still had to bowl one over in the powerplay and that gives us the edge over them." "However, at the same time, that is an essential component of the game and the position that Badoni will play. When things get tough like that and we lose early wickets, that's the time for him to shine. Pant also said that losing wickets in a heap forced their hand into bringing allrounder Shahbaz Ahmed on as their Impact Player in the first innings itself, which meant they couldn't use legspinner Digvesh Rathi. "We had to bring in a bowling batsman because we couldn't get a partnership going for a long time with the way we batted. As Impact Player, we had to choose that option because we ran out of runs on a good surface," Pant stated. Shahbaz made an unbeaten 15 off 16, and ended up conceding 16 runs off the only over he bowled. Chasing 142, DC were in early trouble as LSG reduced them to 26 for 4. However, Sameer Rizvi and Tristan Stubbs sealed the win for the visitors with an unbeaten 119-run stand. The fact that LSG gave up 20 more points helped DC as well. "Extras definitely hurt. But you also know that when a wicket like this occurs, you are trying too hard. Especially in a score like 140 where you have to get them out because if they play even normal cricket, they can get away," Pant said. "But few extra crucial wickets in the starting actually put them on the back foot for sure."