Rishabh Pant and the Pressure of the 27-Crore Price Tag

Pant (Image: IPL)

Twenty seven crores. The figure is enough to send a chill down anyone’s spine. That’s the kind of money Rishabh Pant is being paid each season for three years. Not even one per cent of the country earns this kind of money in an entire career and, in his case, he is making it in a matter of months. The first thing that needs to be said here is that Pant did not ask for the money. The market decided he was worth that much and his franchise decided to pay him accordingly. But still, it is Pant who has to deal with this burden. However much he may deny it, it seems too much to bear. More so when the season has not gone to plan, it becomes an albatross around his neck.

Just the other day, I was reading Shaun Pollock questioning Pant’s captaincy. To be fair to Pollock, he is doing his job as a pundit. Two wins from nine matches and the captain will inevitably be questioned. That’s where the focus should turn to Rishabh. Is the burden of the price tag weighing him down? Is he feeling the heat every time he walks out? While the management has not said a word in public, is the pressure self-inflicted and does it naturally come with such a price tag?

But why only Pant? Except for Shreyas Iyer, every player paid more than 20 crores has underperformed in the IPL in recent years. Venkatesh Iyer wasn’t able to live up to the price tag for KKR and eventually lost out. The same can be said of Cameron Green this year. Green hasn’t done anything yet to justify the 25-crore price tag. While Mitchell Starc was able to step up in the final in 2024, he had done little for KKR through most of the season. Pat Cummins too, individually, wasn’t able to do much for SRH.

How much is too much? That is the question that needs to be asked. These are young men and they must clearly be feeling the pressure. Rishabh is one of the most talked-about cricketers in India and it cannot be easy for him. Seeing his compatriots do well must be eating away at him and yet sport is not something he can control.

This is where sport asks the hardest questions and only Rishabh can answer them. However much the team management or the coach decides to back him, eventually it comes down to him and him alone. Can he turn things around? Can he dig deeper, introspect, and ask himself what has gone wrong? What mistakes has he made? Was the Pooran Super Over call the wrong one?

This isn’t going to be easy for Rishabh. Last year could perhaps have been passed off as an aberration. But 2026 will be an even tougher challenge for him to overcome. But then, he is Rishabh Pant, a young man who has already beaten death. So let’s hope he finds his way back and defeats the pressure of the price tag. That is his only hope of turning things around. The 10-ball 32 against high-flying Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) was a small step in the right direction.

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The post Rishabh Pant and the Pressure of the 27-Crore Price Tag appeared first on Sports News Portal | Revsportz.



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