Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
Sourav Ganguly believes he can give Rishabh Pant’s IPL career a breath of fresh air. The newly appointed Delhi Capitals head coach has a fairly simple plan for the embattled wicketkeeper-batter: take him back to the middle order, give him a defined role and allow him the time and space to rediscover the player who once made Delhi one of the IPL’s most dangerous teams.
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It is a significant change from the direction Pant had wanted his Indian Premier League career to take.
Pant started his IPL career as a middle-order batter and played the bulk of his cricket for Delhi Capitals in that role. But as his game evolved, so did his thinking. Pant believed that his best position in T20 cricket was at the top of the order, where he could face more deliveries and have greater control over an innings.
That thinking eventually contributed to his departure from Delhi after the 2024 season. Lucknow Super Giants made a massive investment in the idea, buying Pant for Rs 27 crore at the IPL auction and making him the most expensive player in the history of the tournament at the time.
Two seasons later, the experiment has ended with Pant back where he started.
Pant never quite found a settled role in the LSG batting order. The franchise struggled to find the right place for him, and he struggled to produce the kind of consistency expected from a player who had commanded a record price. After two difficult seasons, Pant was traded back to Delhi Capitals for a considerably lower value.
Ganguly, however, sees the return as an opportunity to simplify things.
“We needed a middle-order batter and Pant fits it perfectly. He was with us and he played well for us. Next year, when he turns up again, I think he’ll use the time and space and the matches to become a better player,” Ganguly said in a video posted by Delhi Capitals on their official YouTube channel.
WHAT’S GANGULY’S PLAN FOR PANT?
Ganguly wants to put Pant back into the environment where he became one of the IPL’s most destructive middle-order batters. A No. 4 or No. 5 role would give him a familiar position, while allowing Delhi to use his ability to change the course of an innings without asking him to carry the responsibility of opening the batting.
“You know he enjoys batting at the Feroz Shah Kotla (Arun Jaitley Stadium) in Delhi and hopefully we’ll see the best of Pant in the years to come for the Delhi shirt,” Ganguly added.
Pant’s return to Delhi is also about more than a change of franchise. His career has taken a complicated turn since he established himself as one of India’s most exciting young batters.
The life-threatening car accident in December 2022 kept him out of cricket for more than a year and was followed by a long rehabilitation. He returned to competitive cricket in 2024, regained his place in India’s T20I and Test teams and eventually took on a leadership role with the national side.
But the IPL has been a different story.
Pant’s final season with Delhi before the move to Lucknow had already shown signs of a player trying to find his best version. The decision to leave and embrace a different role at LSG was supposed to provide a fresh start. Instead, the change of scenery brought two seasons in which neither his batting nor his place in the order settled properly.
That is why Ganguly’s plan is deliberately less complicated. Rather than asking Pant to reinvent himself again, Delhi want to take him back to what worked.
WHAT’S PANT’S RECORD IN THE MIDDLE ORDER?
The numbers from Pant’s first spell in Delhi explain why the franchise is willing to try that route again. He has played 103 matches in the middle order, batting at No. 4 and 5, and scored 2,941 runs at a strike rate of 145.
Ganguly knows there is more to coaching Pant than simply deciding where he bats. The former India captain, who is also heading the Cricket Association of Bengal, has moved into his first major coaching role with Delhi after previously working as director of cricket for the franchise and as head coach of their South African outfit, Pretoria Capitals.
He said his approach would be based on understanding players rather than imposing his own methods on them.
“It’s not the same as a player. It’s a bit different, you need to understand things, you need to be relaxed. You still need to find a way to get the best out of players and work with the players because players are different,” Ganguly said.
“It’s not you batting or you bowling anymore. It’s about somebody else batting or bowling or winning cricket matches. So it’s important that you sync with them and understand what they want and how they can get better.”
That could be particularly important in Pant’s case. The player returning to Delhi is not the same one who left the franchise. His two seasons in Lucknow and poor international form have added to the scrutiny around his game.
Ganguly’s answer is to make things clearer for him.
Pant will return to a ground where he has produced some of his best IPL innings, a dressing room he knows and, potentially, a batting position in which he has already shown that he can thrive.
Delhi finished sixth last season and have reached the IPL final only once, in 2020. Ganguly is therefore not simply returning Pant to the middle order for nostalgia’s sake. He believes the combination of a settled role and a talented squad can help Delhi challenge again.
“It’s a good team with KL Rahul, Axar Patel, Rishabh Pant, Mitchell Starc, Lungi Ngidi, David Miller, Tristan Stubbs, it’s a pretty strong team and I hope we play to our potential and I hope everyone understands how good they are and goes and expresses themselves,” he said.
“Motivation is to take Delhi to the top.”
For Pant, it could mean going back to the basics of what made him so effective in the first place. He wanted to become an opener, left Delhi for a record price and spent two seasons trying to make the new plan work.
Now, Ganguly has another idea. Put Pant back in the middle order, give him responsibility without overloading him with it, and see if a familiar role can bring back the player Delhi know so well.
After two difficult years in Lucknow, Pant is back in Delhi. Ganguly’s job is to make sure this time, he knows exactly where he belongs.
– Ends
SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
