“It’s a 50-50 call”, Pant on his batting position in IPL 2026
Lucknow Super Giants captain Rishabh Pant confirmed that he would bat in the top three for the rest of the reason but unsure of continuing to open. “I think it’s a 50-50 call, but we’ll see,” Pant said after their six-wicket defeat. “But [you’ll] definitely see me in the top order.”
Pant had not opened in the T20s since November 2022 but in IPL 2025 he had opened once. On Wednesday he opened with Mitchell Marsh and made 7 off 9 against Delhi Capitals. This made Aiden Markram bat at No 3 who along with Marsh had formed a successful opening pair last season. This move also saw Nicholas Pooran bat lower down the order to which Pant explained, “I think the idea was very simple. Like, [Pooran] is taking the charge in the middle overs. He’s not batting in the top order anymore because I’m batting up the order.”
Ishan will be a very effective leader: SRH coach
Pat Cummins may not be on the field but he has been with the Sunrisers Hyderabad squad since the beginning of IPL 2026. Ahead of their second match of the season against Kolkata Knight Riders, the SRH coach, Vettori said, “We’re fortunate enough that Pat has been around the group and he’s been able to have conversations with Ishan about his captaincy style.”
He added, “But Ishan has been highly successful in his captaincy career so far. So whilst it can be slightly different, we don’t look at [no Cummins on the field] as a negative at all [from the point of view of captaincy]. As you saw by Ishan’s performance in the first game, he loves leadership, he loves being out there and I think it can have a real positive effect on his batting and keeping. As he gets to understand the group and the dynamic, he’s going to put his mark on it and I have no doubt that he will be a very effective leader for us.”
Amelia Kerr talks about her record-breaking innings against SA
After the record-breaking 179* off 139 Amelia Kerr said it was her “No.1 innings”. Kerr who helped New Zealand to achieve a series-levelling win over South Africa and also register the highest successful chase in women’s ODI history, said that her focus was the get the job done.
“I was really calm out there and just was so focused on, I guess, simplifying it to each over and where we needed to be to get the job done,” she said after the game at the press conference. “And then it kind of got to like 20 [22] off 15 or whatever it was, and you start to think how cool would this be if we won. But again, I probably didn’t have those thoughts till that moment in the game and just had to bring myself back to the present moment rather than thinking this could be really cool, making sure I get the job done.
