Phone Smashing, Dugout Abuse & Favoritism: Is All Well Between Rishabh Pant and Lucknow Super Giants?

The Lucknow Super Giants had yet another forgettable IPL season. However, their underwhelming season has been overshadowed by some outrageous allegations from a team insider who has accused skipper Rishabh Pant of multiple serious allegations. The claims surfaced on Reddit first and then went viral on social media platform X (previously called Twitter).

The Shocking Insider Allegations Against Rishabh Pant

According to the leaked social media post, Pant’s multi-crore spotlight and the immense pressure of leading the team have severely affected his behavior and captaincy style. The insider leveled several specific, serious allegations against the wicketkeeper-batsman:

• Volatile Behavior Toward Young Players: The post claims that Pant is highly unpredictable and disrespectful to the younger domestic players in the squad. He is accused of being friendly one moment and turning extremely aggressive and volatile the next.
• The Phone Smashing Incident: During a particularly heated and tense team meeting, Pant reportedly lost his cool completely. The insider alleges that the captain threw and broke his own phone in a fit of frustration.
• Abuse Toward the Head Coach: In one of the most serious claims, the insider states that Pant openly abused LSG head coach Justin Langer right inside the team dugout.
• Selfish and Unilateral Decision-Making: Even though Pant attended all tactical and team meetings, he allegedly showed absolutely zero interest in anyone else’s opinions. The post claims he ignored the coaching staff and made all major match decisions entirely by himself.

Questionable Selection Choices and Favoritism

The viral leak also shed light on bizarre tactical moves and team selections made during the 2026 season, alleging they were driven by Pant’s personal biases:

• Messed Up Batting Order: Pant chose to open the batting with Ayush Badoni while forcing established international star Aiden Markram down to No. 5, despite Markram openly expressing his desire to open. Even Markram has returned home despite LSG still having two more games to play in their group stage.
• The Super Over Blunder: During a high-stakes Super Over, Pant reportedly ignored the direct advice of the team management and insisted on sending Nicholas Pooran to open the batting.
• The Mukul Chaudhary Dropping: The insider made a shocking claim regarding young performer Mukul Chaudhary. After Mukul played a brilliant, notable innings, Pant allegedly dropped him for the next game because he was jealous of the sudden media attention the youngster was getting. He replaced Mukul with his own childhood friend, Himmat Singh.

• Favoritism At Peak: The captain is also accused of showing heavy favoritism toward fast bowler Avesh Khan, continuously backing him over other deserving pacers in the squad.

Massive Backlash and the ₹27 Crore Pressure

These heavy allegations dropped right after Pant had a viral slip of the tongue during a post-match interview, where he used an explicit curse, the ‘F’ word, on live TV during the post-match chat. Netizens are now connecting the dots, suggesting that his massive INR 27 crore retention price tag has broken his composure, causing both his batting form and his mental peace to collapse. So far, the Lucknow Super Giants management has maintained a strict silence and has not issued any official statement regarding the leaked post.

With LSG out of the playoff race and finishing at the bottom of the table, this controversy has intensified calls for the management to strip Pant of his captaincy duties. Experts believe that taking the leadership pressure away is the only way to help Pant rescue his reputation and find his rhythm as a pure batsman before the next season. It remains interesting to see if Pant will reprise LSG’s captaincy duties in IPL 2027 or if the team management and owners take a strict call and make their highest-paid batter play as a normal player without any captaincy burden.