‘ऋषभ पंत को युवराज सिंह के मिडास टच की जरूरत है, उन्हें आईपीएल 2026 में एलएसजी के लिए ओपनिंग करनी चाहिए या नंबर 3 पर बल्लेबाजी करनी चाहिए’

Former Indian cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin hopes that Yuvraj Singh’s training sessions with Rishabh Pant will perhaps help the latter to regain his form in IPL 2026. Being the most expensive player after being bagged for Rs 27 crore in the mega auction, the southpaw simply failed to justify his hefty price tag, making the least impact throughout the season although he ended the campaign with an impressive century. Ahead of IPL 2026, Ashwin has opined on where Pant should bat for LSG while also pointing out that how Yuvraj could help him overcome obstacles.

‘Maybe if Pant practices with Yuvraj…’

In a video on his YouTube channel, Ashwin reckoned that it is perhaps Yuvraj’s Midas touch that Pant needs to regain his form in the IPL. Much unlike himself, the LSG captain managed to score just 269 runs from 14 innings in IPL 2025, with majority of the runs coming from his 118run unbeaten knock in LSG’s final game. Ashwin reckoned that Pant will have to either open the batting for LSG in IPL 2026 or bat at number 3 at the maximum, and not below that. Pant was earlier seen seeking the advice of Yuvraj ahead of IPL 2026 in a bid to improve his batting game.

“Maybe if he practices with Yuvraj Singh, he will perform well. This could be the Midas touch that Rishabh Pant needs. But if they want to use Rishabh Pant well, Rishabh Pant should be opening the batting or batting at No. 3, according to me. He should not bat below that,” Ashwin said.

With 296 runs to his name in IPL 2025, it marked Pant’s second most poorest season in terms of runs amassed, with the first being in the year which he made his IPL debut where he managed to score 198 runs in 10 matches in IPL 2016. Between 2017 and 2024, he always managed to score over 300 runs in each season. For the record, Pant has opened the innings in the IPL only on 5 occasions where he has scored a combined of 125 runs while batting at number 1 or 2. At number 3, he has batted on 15 occasions and has scored 558 runs. However, it is pertinent to point out that he has the most amount of runs in his IPL career while batting at number 4 – over 4000 runs. LSG’s batting top-order is pretty much sorted – with Aiden Markram and Mitchell Marsh delivering at the top of the order. It remains to be seen if Pant will be promoted up the order as a part of a radical shake-up in the LSG batting unit.