IPL 2025: Pant’s poor form costing LSG a whopping Rs 12.74 lakh per run: study

A month into IPL 2025, and two of the biggest buys of the mega auction have been making headlines for the wrong reasons, while the third has managed to hold his own so far. No prizes for guessing, one is talking about Rishabh Pant and Venkatesh Iyer, while Punjab Kings captain Shreyas Iyer has been on the money so far.

With Lucknow Super Giants very much in the race for the play-offs with five wins out of nine matches to be in fifth position, captain Pant still has a chance to redeem himself as a batter despite a miserable tally of 106 runs at a strike-rate of 98.14. What’s more important, the easygoing demeanour and confidence which is so much a part of his personality is missing, which suggests that the pressure of a Rs 27 crore price tag (highest ever for any player in IPL history) is taking a heavy toll.

In what was a battle of attrition of sorts against his former team Delhi Capitals at Ekana Stadium, Pant failed to have the last laugh, and what was more intriguing was him coming in to bat at number seven instead of four, somewhat akin to Mahendra Singh Dhoni these days. The sarcastic smile on LSG owner Sanjeev Goenka’s face when Pant fell for a two-ball duck, as caught by the official broadcasters, did not escape the notice of netizens.

While Pant has proved his worth as the rarest of gems in Indian cricket despite the current dip in form — with the saga of his comeback from the jaws of death holding a special place in the hearts of fans — Venkatesh has been pilloried as the ‘Rs 23.75 crore fraud’ on social media. It’s not the first time that the price tag of a player hangs over him like a cross, and the indifferent performance of the franchise has had a direct correlation to the pressure building on him.

Now the vice-captain of the Knights, the Madhya Pradesh batter has scraped together an aggregate of 135 runs with only one fifty, but has failed to shoulder the responsibility of the middle order a la Shreyas Iyer. Unlike Pant who has, in fact, failed to reach double figures even once, Venkatesh has got starts but failed to build on them.

Cricket website OneCricket has calculated a return on investment (ROI) on the most expensive trio at the last auction — making for an interesting analysis. Pant’s poor run with the bat meant his cost per run stands at a staggering Rs 12.74 lakh with an ROI of -66.93 per cent. The sum invested in Venkatesh, meanwhile, translates to Rs 10.18 crore being invested in him, at a cost of Rs 7.54 lakh per run and an ROI of -59.91 per cent.

Shreyas (263 runs) who received Rs 26.75 crore, has had Rs 15.29 crore invested in him on a pro rata basis (eight matches), and his breakdown works out to Rs 5.81 lakh per run, and the highest ROI of the trio at + 16.39 per cent. Questions may be asked about the veracity of such an analysis and how it may work with bowlers, keeping in mind the trolling that someone like the legendary Mitchell Starc was subjected to when KKR bought him for a staggering Rs 24.75 crore last year.

The uncertainty of the T20 format, where a batter is not allowed to put a premium on his wicket, combined with the pressure from overzealous management in overt and covert ways, all take a toll on a player. It’s very much survival of the fittest out there!