Former India player Aakash Chopra has lauded Rishabh Pant for playing a match-winning knock in the Lucknow Super Giants’ (LSG) IPL 2026 clash against the SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH). He noted that although Pant’s knock wasn’t pleasing to watch, it ensured his side won the game.

SRH set LSG a 157-run target in the 10th game of IPL 2026 in Hyderabad on Sunday, April 5. Pant scored an unbeaten 68 off 50 deliveries in the chase to help his side register a five-wicket win with a ball to spare.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel, ‘Aakash Chopra,’ the former India batter praised Pant for looking slightly ugly, but staying till the end to ensure an LSG win.

“Rishabh Pant, welcome back, Spidey. These weren’t beautiful runs. Paintings are beautiful, but innings need not necessarily be beautiful. He said he would stay till the end and win the match even if it looks ugly. He did that job. He stayed till the end. Wickets were falling regularly from the other end, and one was slightly scared when he was with Mukul Choudhary, but he finished the game,” he said.

Chopra added that Pant would justify his ₹27 crore auction price if he plays four or five game-changing knocks in IPL 2026.

“Didn’t look great, but winning the match was important. When so much money is spent on you, it’s good enough if you perform like this even in four or five matches, where you turn the game. Rishabh Pant has done that in one of the two matches. You wouldn’t have won this match without him,” he observed.

Rishabh Pant didn’t hit a six but struck nine fours during his unbeaten 68-run knock. Although LSG were reduced to 139/5 after 17.4 overs, the wicketkeeper-batter took his side over the line in Mukul Choudhary’s (2* off 5) company.

“The Lucknow team is playing with only 3 overseas now” – Aakash Chopra on LSG’s concern after IPL 2026 win vs SRH

In the same video, Aakash Chopra noted that the Lucknow Super Giants had only three overseas players in their playing combination for their IPL 2026 clash against the SunRisers Hyderabad.

“Interestingly, the Lucknow team is playing with only three overseas players now because they didn’t pick any overseas batter in the middle order. They picked Josh Inglis, who hasn’t been available thus far. They had David Miller, but they let him go. They wanted to buy Liam Livingstone, but they couldn’t,” he said.

While highlighting LSG’s lower-middle-order batting concern, the cricketer-turned-commentator opined that Rishabh Pant and company made the right call in making Mitchell Marsh and Aiden Markram open.

“They didn’t think about Daryl Mitchell. So there are slight troubles in the lower-middle order, and Nicholas Pooran is not scoring runs. That will definitely hurt them a little. If we go towards their batting, it came to the right thing. The openers should be them only. Make Marsh and Markram open. They showed they are good and that you should make them open,” he observed.

Aiden Markram and Mitchell Marsh stitched together a 37-run opening partnership in 4.4 overs in LSG’s IPL 2026 clash against SRH. While Markram (45 off 27) was the only LSG batter, apart from Rishabh Pant, to score more than 20 runs, Marsh contributed a 12-ball 14.