Jaffer: Pant 'needs to get better at rotating strike'

Pant showed signs of a return to form against Chennai Super Kings but also played out a lot of dot balls. Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) captain Rishabh Pant showed signs of a return to form with his 49-ball 63 against Chennai Super Kings (CSK), even though his side lost by five wickets. Coming into this game, he had scored just 40 runs off 50 balls across five innings in IPL 2025. It was a strange knock, though. Pant walked in at No. 4, after LSG had lost two early wickets, and moved to 27 off just 16 balls. But he slowed down considerably after that and was on 38 off 38 at one point. He had a hard time, especially against Noor Ahmad, who hit just six of his 15 balls. Ten of those were dots. Pant's innings contained a total of 21 dots. For comparison, Virat Kohli's 62 not out off 45 balls against Rajasthan Royals (RR) on Sunday had only nine dots. Pant has the lowest dot-ball percentage of any player who has faced at least 50 balls this season, at 48.48 percent. With big shots not coming off as often as he would have liked, this has impacted his strike rate, which currently stands at 104.04. "I don't know whether he looks to do that [rotate strike]," former India opener Wasim Jaffer said. "Kohli is a master at that. He plays everywhere and gets off strike so well. However, Pant does occasionally become stuck, and that is the problem. Then he goes for that big shot. I just feel he needs to get better at rotating strike as well." Pant should also focus more on the straight boundaries when facing spinners and fast bowlers, according to Jaffer. On Monday, only one of his four fours and sixes hit the ground. Jaffer stated, "I feel he never looks to hit straight." "He always looks to go towards the leg side, towards square leg, cow corner. He hit one straight six right towards the end [against CSK]. Otherwise, at the start of the innings, he was always looking to go towards the leg side, or that reverse scoop that he played, but that was the only thing. "A lot of the time, the teams stack up the fielders in that area as well. Therefore, I believe he requires greater ground access." Abhinav Mukund, Jaffer's co-panelist on the show, said, "I still feel Pant has so much to offer when he is moving around, contrary to what you hear a lot of commentators and players saying that he needs to stay still and hit. When Pant is moving around, I like him. He seems more proactive because he goes over cover and goes straight. He had the impression that that cover area was closed today, which is somewhat concerning.