Rishabh Pant’s Captaincy Under Fire: Manoj Tiwary Questions Arjun Tendulkar’s Exclusion
Rishabh Pant‘s Captaincy Under Fire: Manoj Tiwary Questions Arjun Tendulkar’s Exclusion
After LSG’s horror show in IPL 2026, Rishabh Pant, the skipper, has been charged with accusations of flawed decision-making and has been reprimanded by the former India cricketer Manoj Tiwary.
LSG’s Struggles Under Pant’s Leadership
Lucknow Super Giants have truly struggled under Rishabh Pant’s leadership. He struggled with form since he came into the Super Giants team, be it for his team’s weak bowling lineup in 2025 or his batters lacking form in 2026.
The Super Giants are currently at the bottom of the points table. They have lost seven matches, while six of these losses have been in a row. They also lost several low-scoring games, including the defeat against the Kolkata Knight Riders in a super over.
Manoj Tiwary Raises Questions on Pant’s Captaincy
Former KKR batter Manoj Tiwary has raised several questions on Rishabh Pant’s captaincy and his decision-making ability for the Lucknow Super Giants after their seventh defeat of the season.
Under an all-win situation, when LSG needed to bounce back to retain their chances for the playoffs of this edition of the IPL, LSG suffered another 6-wicket defeat after having posted a commendable score of 228 runs in their 20 overs.
Pant’s Poor Captaincy Stint Highlighted
He pointed out that Rishabh Pant’s poor captaincy stint was once again highlighted during the outing, as the likes of Mohammed Shami and Mohsin Khan were giving away many runs, but the skipper did nothing in order to restrict the flow of runs.
Pant is also losing out on tactical moves. In the match against Mumbai, Prince Yadav was the only economical bowler, and that was because he was executing yorkers. As a captain, you should have told the other bowlers to follow that plan, he said on Cricbuzz.
Arjun Tendulkar’s Exclusion Questioned
Rohit Sharma was scoring runs freely off the length, while he only struggled when any bowler could nail the yorkers. Prince Yadav was the lone bright spot for the Super Giants, who maintained a low economy of 8. One of the major highlights of his spell was his perfect yorkers.
Having witnessed him, Tiwary criticized Pant for not only not asking others to implement the same strategy but also questioned the absence of Arjun Tendulkar, who has been seen nailing yorkers in the nets for LSG.
I even saw videos on social media, posted by LSG, showing Arjun Tendulkar bowling yorkers in the nets. So Pant could have brought him in. This is where MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma are different as captains, Manoj Tiwary added.
Pant Admits to Lack of Form
Rishabh Pant went on to admit that his lack of form with the bat has resulted in the Lucknow Super Giants losing streak. After the promising start to the innings from Nicholas Pooran and Mitchell Marsh, LSG could not manage to keep up with the pace of the innings.
He was dismissed for just 15 runs off just 10 balls in the match, and he too admitted that his lack of contributions with the bat may have affected the result of the match, as some more runs could have been added, had he stayed longer at the crease.
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