"One aspect of my captaincy....": Pant following appointment as LSG captain

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], January 20 (ANI): Indian wicketkeeper-batter and newly-appointed Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) captain Rishabh Pant opened up on his approach towards captaincy, saying that he is someone who wants to be proactive and gives freedom to his players to express themselves freely on the field.
Pant was announced as the captain of LSG on Tuesday ahead of this year's IPL season. The announcement was made on Star Sports during the show 'LSG Special Live', which also featured the franchise owner Dr Sanjiv Goenka.
Speaking on Star Sports, Pant said about captaincy that he aims to be proactive and it is challenging to lead a team in the IPL when the set-up features a lot of senior, international stars. He also said that he wants to give each player enough backing and an environment where everyone wants to come and play for the franchise.
"One aspect of my captaincy is that I am and I want to be very proactive. This is something I have learnt in the last two years. The more communication you can have with the management and players, the bond becomes better. There has to be one channel, that can send the message to the whole group. Receiving and working towards the same thought process I think is one challenging aspect in IPL as a captain because there are so many senior and international players. How do you communicate with them? So, everyone works in the same direction: Wanting to have your team win," he said.
"I want to be someone who gives freedom to players to express themselves and to have them feel the backing that if we ask you to do something, we are there for you. It does not mean that if you say this to a player he gets all the 14 matches. Players understand this. We want to create an environment where players want to come and play for the franchise," he added.
Pant became the most expensive player in the history of the IPL, being bought by Lucknow Super Giants for a massive Rs 27 crores during the IPL mega auction at Jeddah held in November last year.
He beat compatriot Shreyas Iyer, who had just become the most expensive player in the league's history, going to Punjab Kings (PBKS) for Rs 26.75 crores a few minutes before his record-breaking bid. Iyer had beat Australia's Mitchell Starc, who marked his return to IPL after years with a record-breaking bid of Rs 24.75 crores.
Initially, there was a bidding war between LSG and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), with the latter giving up. Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) entered the bidding war, trying to bolster their explosive batting attack and Delhi Capitals (DC) tried to use the 'Right To Match' card, but they could not match the value LSG put for Pant, breaking the bank for him and going beyond Iyer's value.
The swashbuckling wicketkeeper-batter is an all-format for India and a livewire on the field. Having proven himself as a man for big stages in Test cricket, Pant's T20 game is just as solid. Though he has scored 1,209 runs in 76 T20Is at an underwhelming average of 23.25, a strike rate of almost 128 and just three fifties, his overall T20 numbers are way better, having made 5,022 runs in 202 matches at an average of 31.78, a strike rate of over 145, with two centuries and 25 fifties.
Pant represented Delhi Capitals (DC) for his entire IPL career since 2016, scoring 3,284 runs in 110 matches at an average of 35.31, with a century and 18 fifties. He was appointed as the team's captain in 2021 and led them to playoffs in the same season. As a captain, he has led the team in 43 matches, winning 24 and losing 19. (ANI)