'Getting into IPL 2025 we knew a lot of gaps were there because of injuries' - Rishabh Pant on where it went wrong for LSG

Rishabh Pant pointed out that the injuries sustained by the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) pacers at the beginning and through the middle of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 created big gaps that proved difficult for the others to close. The LSG captain said this after his team was eliminated on Monday, May 19, after losing to Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the Ekana Cricket Stadium.

Fifties from Aiden Markram and Mitchell Marsh helped LSG post a formidable total of 205/7. However, Abhishek Sharma's 20-ball 59 and useful contributions from Ishan Kishan, Heinrich Klaasen, and Kamindu Mendis helped the former champions win in 18.2 overs with six wickets to spare.

"It couldn't be the best season for us. 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 said after the match.

Mohsin Khan missed the entire season due to injury. Akash Deep and Avesh Khan joined the team after missing the first few games. Mayank Yadav recovered from an injury in the middle of the season and played two games. However, another injury ended his campaign.

"The way we planned the auction, if we had the same bowling [attack], the story would be different. 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," he added.

Definitely the bowler Rathi has come up nicely for us this season: Pant

Pant said that the firepower in the batting department has been the biggest positive for LSG. He noted that his bowlers tried hard but were inconsistent.

"There's enough firepower in the batting. 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," Pant noted.

Pant also lauded Digvesh Rathi, who impressed the cricket fraternity with his leg-spin bowling throughout the season. The Delhi cricketer has scalped 14 wickets from 12 games at a decent economy rate of 8.18. He gave LSG hopes of a win on Monday by picking up the crucial wickets of Abhishek and Kishan.

"Definitely the bowler Rathi has come up nicely for us this season. 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," said Pant.