Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], March 22 (ANI): South African batting veteran Faf Du Plessis said that the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) season will be an important one for Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) skipper Rishabh Pant after a poor season last year, prized as the league's most expensive player at Rs 27 crore.

Pant, the LSG skipper, will be aiming to shake off the blues of a disappointing 2025 season and to justify his massive prize tag as much as possible this season. This season will be Pant's most important one, perhaps, not only in terms of money but also for the sake of his future in India's limited-overs set-up, having been outdone massively by KL Rahul in the ODIs and by Sanju Samson and Ishan Kishan in T20Is, with Jitesh Sharma as another backup option. A massive IPL season could place Pant back in the race to become India's first-choice wicketkeeper-batter in limited-overs cricket.

Speaking on JioHotstar's 'Game Plan - Know Your Team', JioStar expert du Plessis said on Pant, 'For me, Rishabh Pant is probably the player in the IPL who is under the most pressure this season. Some guys flourish under the pressure of the price tag, while some do not. I think last season was a really tough one for him. The team struggled, and he also struggled with runs in the way that he batted. So, there is all that pressure coming into the season, along with the expectations of what the team is going to do.'

Pant had a horrendous 2025 season, scoring just 269 runs in 13 innings at an average of 24.45 and a strike rate of 133.16, with just a century and a fifty to his name, with the best score of 118*, scored against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB).

Du Plessis also questioned how the team is going to maximise its bowling, being a batting-dominant line-up, and feels if Pant is back among the runs, pressure will be off the bowler's shoulders.

The veteran also expressed his awe at how young spinner Digvesh Rathi delivered in his debut season and left a lot of batters guessing with his bowling, taking 14 wickets in 13 matches at an average of 30.64, with best figures of 2/30. Du Plessis is curious as to how batters will approach him in the upcoming season.

' It was unbelievable the way Digvesh Rathi went about his business. In his first season, not a lot of batters knew what he was doing. I remember facing him for the first time and thinking, 'Okay, I need to get used to this because it is a little bit different.' In the second season, once again, how do batters line up against him now? He looks like he is doing well, although some of it might also be because of the social media stuff. But his performances look consistent,' said Du Plessis.

He also said that it would be difficult for the side's premier spinner, Sri Lanka's Wanindu Hasaranga, to be okay for the first part of the IPL due to the injury sustained during the T20 World Cup and put together a likely spin combination for the side.

'The challenge they have is that Hasaranga has been injured quite often over the last three years. And he is injured again. So, I expect him to not be ready for the first part of the IPL. I think they would have to go with Anrich Nortje (pacer) to get that balance right. But then, what does their spin combination look like? Digvesh Rathi, Shahbaz Ahmed, and maybe some part-time (Aiden) Markram,' he concluded.

LSG will start their season against Delhi Capitals (DC) on April 1 at Lucknow. (ANI)