Three balls. Zero runs. One ₹27 crore price tag making him the most pressured captain in IPL 2026. Rishabh Pant walked off at Sawai Mansingh Stadium on April 22 after Nandre Burger clocked 142.7 kph and sent him packing for his 12th T20 duck — a wild slog across the line while going down on one knee, like a man proposing to a ball that absolutely did not say yes.
That duck wasn’t an accident. It was the perfect summary of Pant’s IPL 2026 form — a season so bad that the memes have stopped being funny and started being evidence.
₹26 Lakh Per Run — Yes, We Did the Math
Here’s the number that makes this whole disaster feel real. Pant has scored 104 runs in 7 innings this season. LSG paid ₹27 crore for him at the 2025 mega auction — the highest price tag in IPL auction history. That works out to roughly ₹26 lakh per run.
Twenty-six lakh. Per run. You could buy a decent car for what each of his runs costs.
His season average sits at approximately 14.86. He has two ducks. His highest score — 68 not out against SRH — is the only innings where he looked like the Rishabh Pant that LSG thought they were buying. Six other times, he walked out, played a shot that belonged in a gully cricket match, and walked back.
But Pant isn’t even the worst part of this investment.
The ₹48 Crore Club That Won One Game
Nicholas Pooran was retained by LSG for ₹21 crore. His IPL 2026 stats? 51 runs in 6-plus innings. Average: 8.50. Strike rate: 79.68. Against RCB, he scored 1 off 7 balls — and Aaron Finch’s commentary called it perfectly: “The harder you try, the worse it gets.”
Combined, Pant and Pooran have cost LSG ₹48 crore. They’ve contributed roughly 155 runs between them. They’ve been directly responsible for exactly one win — that SRH game where Pant’s 68* actually came off.
Simon Doull didn’t hold back: “You have spent 50 crores on two players, Pant and Pooran, who have won you one game. Almost half your purse on two players who have won you one game.”
Half your purse. One win. And it gets worse when you look at what that one win actually cost.
LSG’s Babar Azam — And No, Fans Aren’t Being Subtle
The internet has a name for what Pant is doing: “LSG’s Babar Azam.” If you follow cricket Twitter even casually, you know exactly what that comparison means — expensive franchise player, massive expectations, consistently disappointing returns. The kind of comparison that would’ve started a war in the comments section six months ago. Now? People are just nodding.
After the RR game, fans didn’t stop at the Babar jokes. Pant fumbled a simple run-out chance behind the stumps — dislodged the bails, then fumbled the collect — and “PSL things in IPL” started trending. Others posted that he “doesn’t deserve even ₹27” — rupees, not crore. The sarcasm has evolved past anger into something closer to resignation.
And the LSG captain’s own words aren’t helping. His post-match quote — “Our batting is letting us down” — would’ve landed differently if he hadn’t just gotten out for a three-ball duck. “We have enough firepower,” he added. “We can still turn it around.” LSG sit 9th in the points table with 2 wins from 7 games and four consecutive losses — the worst losing streak in franchise history.
Meanwhile, Punjab Kings remain unbeaten with players who cost a fraction of what Pant alone costs.
The One Innings That Makes Everything Worse
Here’s the cruel part. That 68 not out against SRH? That’s what makes this a disaster instead of just a bad season. Pant proved he can still do it. He has the shots, the timing, the audacity. He showed it once, in one innings, and then went right back to reckless slogs and ugly sweeps and the kind of shot selection that gets you dropped from your colony team, not captained in the IPL.
One brilliant innings out of seven doesn’t justify ₹27 crore. It tortures you with what could’ve been. LSG didn’t buy a flop — they bought a player whose form vanishes for six games out of seven, then teases you with brilliance before going right back to being the most expensive duck in cricket history.
₹26 lakh per run. Sanjiv Goenka called the auction price “slightly up.” That might be the understatement of IPL 2026.