Fans on social media were quick to spot Rishabh Pant’s “master plan” that helped Lucknow Super Giants script a second consecutive win this season.
-Promoting Samad and Miller over himself.
-Going for review when he wasted one in the last ball.
-Injury break 2.0 for slowing the momentum.
-Managing with zero overseas bowler.Rishabh Pant the captain was top notch in this game. pic.twitter.com/H7KM5mZJDG
— Dhruv (@I_m_dhruv_) April 8, 2025
-Promoting Samad and Miller over himself.
-Going for review when he wasted one in the last ball.
-Injury break 2.0 for slowing the momentum.
-Managing with zero overseas bowler.Rishabh Pant the captain was top notch in this game. pic.twitter.com/H7KM5mZJDG
— Dhruv (@I_m_dhruv_) April 8, 2025
KKR lost today’s match because of an unsportive mischief of Rishabh Pant. KKR was going strong untill Pant’s pretension of injury lying down on the ground. Then batters lost stance. Once Rohit Sharma said the same tactics was adopted by Pant against a foreign country.
— Sahadev Mohanty (@SahadevMohanty) April 8, 2025
Did Rishabh Pant Use Fake Injury Tactics Of T20 World Cup 2024 Final vs KKR In IPL 2025?#RishabhPant #IPL2025 #DCvsKKR #FakeInjuryDebate #CricketControversy pic.twitter.com/OOKCpuFiNe
— cricketwebs (@cricketwebs_com) April 8, 2025
Rishabh Pant is so good at the art of slowing the game down with an injury !! We’ve seen that before 😄#KKRvsLSG #KKRvLSG pic.twitter.com/4fEPM14CuX
— Cricketism (@MidnightMusinng) April 8, 2025
🏏 Rishabh Pant’s Master Plan Unveiled Today same as CT2025! 😜
🏃♂️ Step 1: Spot the opponent’s momentum—South Africa cruising at 26 needed off 24!
🛑 Step 2: Call for a “quick” injury break—151/4 for India? Time to chill! 🥱
🤹♂️ Step 3: Break their rhythm, flip the game,… pic.twitter.com/Yv8Tgq0rOS
— CRICKET 18 LOVER (@Cricket_18_love) April 8, 2025
Pant later admitted to using the delaying tactic during the World Cup final in Barbados. Speaking to Star Sports months after the win, he said: “I actually thinking what to do because the momentum had suddenly shifted (in South Africa’s favour), they had scored plenty of runs in 2-3 overs, so I was thinking when will that moment come when we will the World Cup final.”
“I was asking the physio to take time. When Rohit bhai asked if my knee is fine I said, ‘Bhaiya, mast acting kar raha tha’ (I was acting all this while). Sometimes you have to do these types of things in matches. I’m not saying it works every time, but it does work sometimes and if it works at that kind of a moment, then nothing like it,” he added.
Rishabh Pant addressed injury concern
Despite how social media reacted to the incident, Pant maintained that he had injured his back during wicketkeeping, before assuring that he was fine.
“The back is fine now,” he said in the post-match presentation.
Lucknow will play their next two matches at home – against Gujarat Titans on Saturday and Chennai Super Kings on Monday.
The article originally appeared on Hindustan Times.
