New Delhi: Lucknow Super Giants head coach Justin Langer insists skipper Rishabh Pant’s uneven form in IPL 2026 isn’t due to price tag pressure but his team’s broader struggle isn’t helping him either.

With seven defeats in nine matches, LSG are at the foot of the 10-team standings, and plunged to a six-wicket loss to Mumbai Indians on Monday to be all but out of the race for the four play-off spots.

Pant was brought in for Rs 27 crore and made captain but in his debut year couldn’t guide the team to the play-offs and performance has dipped even further in the ongoing edition.

His 204 runs from nine innings at a strike rate of 128.30 also hasn’t done justice to his stature as a slam-bang match-winner.

“I don’t think the money has anything to do with it. What I do think is that leadership is a tough position and he is carrying a lot of pressure for the team,” Langer said after their defeat in Mumbai.

“But he is chipping away, he is working hard, and he has had a match-winning game earlier in the season. We love it when we see him smiling and playing that swashbuckling style of play and he is not far off.”

Changes in batting order

LSG have tweaked with their batting order to chnange their run of form with Pant moving down to number four to accommodate Nicholas Pooran at number three.

While Pooran smashed a quick-fire fifty Pant wasn’t at his best, though Langer said he wasn’t far it and was glad at least Pooran regsined touch.

“We played a practice game here two days ago and Rishi got, maybe 95 off 40 balls or 30 balls or something, and looking at (it) you go ‘that’s Rishabh Pant at his very best’,” the Australian said.

“We’ve seen him in Test cricket destroy teams at No. 5, and we felt with the way he played just two days ago after we’ve had a seven day break, that might be a good option for the team.

“Rishi is not far off as a captain in the IPL. As a coach, you got to keep fronting up, that’s all you can do, and he’ll keep fronting up and hopefully he’ll help us get some wins over the next few games,” he added.

“The whole restructure of our batting order was a positive. Last season (with) all our metrics we were on top of everything with our batting, this year we are right down the bottom so we had to do something right, we restructured it.

“You try and work out the the jigsaw puzzle, which (way) works best for the team. We’ve chopped and changed the opening positions a few times. (Josh) Inglis brought really good spark, (Mitchell) Marsh as well.

“If you’re winning, everyone says the jigsaw puzzle is right. But one part of the jigsaw puzzle today which was a positive was Nicky Pooran,” he concluded.