What led to LSG's elimination: Panting Pant & puffing pacers

A bigger worry is his form before the England Tests

- VENKATA KRISHNA B

AS THE CURTAINS came down for Lucknow Super Giants at the Ekana Stadium on Monday, Rishabh Pant trudged himself to the dugout with bowed head before he pulled off his gloves with a wry smile. On the night he had seen his batsmen put up another good show, which although looked incomplete, seemed fine, before the holes in Lucknow's bowling resurfaced to drag them down. That they were only the fifth team to be eliminated in itself was credible as all along they have carried an attack without any bite. But invariably, the cameras were all trained on Pant.

Not without reasons, though. He had already made a rallying cry to not single him out for his team's performances. "Every time if you take out the individual, it's not the right thing to do," he had said earlier. However, through the course of this season, Pant has given enough reasons to be the talking point.