Former India player Aakash Chopra has added that the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) cannot afford a frustrated Rishabh Pant as captain in their must-win game against the SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH). He said that anger was evident on his face in their previous game against the Punjab Kings (PBKS) on May 4.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra’, he said, “My focus will once again be on Rishabh Pant. He is a good player, there is no doubt about that, but the truth is that he hasn’t done well this year. It’s also true that he was extremely animated as a captain in the last match before the IPL suspension.”

ALSO READ: “I did get a couple of hints” – AB de Villiers on Virat Kohli’s Test retirement

“It seemed like he was extremely disturbed and frustrated. That’s not the captain you want, one who looks frustrated on the ground. You and I will never get to know what’s going on behind the scenes. One shouldn’t come to know from the captain’s face that he is angry, but the anger was visible, which is not a great thing,” he further added.

However, Aakash Chopra also added that Mitchell Marsh and Aiden Markram have done well in IPL 2025, but picked Nicholas Pooran as the one in focus for the game.

“From the batting perspective, Marsh and Markram are doing decently. My focus is on Pooran because he single-handedly changed the game when these two teams met last time. They were chasing 190, and they chased it easily. It didn’t seem at all that it could become a close match,” he said.

“Pooran played very well at the start – 34 sixes, Orange Cap, and all of that – but there has been such a sudden climb down after that, it is becoming difficult to come out of a slippery slope. If Lucknow have to do something magical, they need Nicholas Pooran to come in incredible form because when Pooran comes in form, this team looks a world-beater,” Aakash Chopra concluded.