Pant points to 'gaps' created by injuries as LSG miss out on playoffs

Injuries to key personnel created to "lot of gaps" that played a part in LSG's underwhelming IPL 2025. That was the captain Rishabh Pant's assessment soon after his team was officially knocked out of the playoffs race by Sunrisers Hyderabad in Lucknow on Monday.

Put in to bat, LSG made 205 on the back of half-centuries from openers Mitchell Marsh and Aiden Markram, but saw that total - "at least 10 short", according to Pant - being razed down by SRH with 10 balls to spare courtesy Abhishek Sharma's six-laden 20-ball 59.

"It couldn't be the best season for us," Pant said. "Getting into the tournament we knew a lot of gaps were there because of injuries. We decided we won't talk about that, but it became difficult to close out those gaps."

Pant was seemingly referring to the prolonged absence of several core players. Left-arm pacer Mohsin Khan missed the entire season, while express quick Mayank Yadav, one of LSG's prized retentions, spent most of the tournament on the sidelines. Mayank briefly returned but looked undercooked and was ruled out again with another back injury. Other big-money signings Avesh Khan and Akash Deep also struggled with fitness issues and joined the playing XI only midway through the season.

"The way we planned the auction, if we had the same bowling [attack], the story would be different," Pant said. "At the same time, this is cricket, things can happen. Sometimes they go your way, sometimes they don't. Need to take pride in the way we're playing. Need to look at the positives other than discussing more on the negative side."

When asked about the silver linings from LSG's campaign, Pant said, "there's enough firepower in the batting," he said. "That's the biggest positive. Even the bowlers, they were bowling in good areas but they were patchy, a little bit. We were trying to make the best of it.

"We've been playing well in patches. In the first half of the season, the players did well, we tried to cover up all problems, but in the second half it became tougher and tougher to catch up against the teams doing well."

One bright spark for LSG was rookie legspinner Digvesh Rathi. The 25-year-old from Delhi impressed in his debut season of the IPL, picking up 14 wickets in 12 matches at a respectable economy rate of 8.08. On Monday, he returned figures of 2 for 37 and was LSG's standout bowler.

"Definitely the bowler Rathi has come up nicely for us this season," Pant said. "The way he has bowled was really good to see. Rathi is one of the positives. There are many areas as a team we need to keep improving on to find ourselves getting better and better."