Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) captain Rishabh Pant said it will be a “50-50 call” on whether he will continue to open through the season or not, but confirmed he will bat in the top three after he walked out with Mitchell Marsh in their first game of IPL 2026 against Delhi Capitals.

“I think it’s a 50-50 call, but we’ll see,” Pant said after their six-wicket defeat. “But [you’ll] definitely see me in the top order.”

Pant had opened once last season, when Marsh was unavailable, but had not opened in T20s since November 2022. On Wednesday, Pant made 7 off 9 and was run out at the non-striker’s end in unfortunate fashion, when the bowler Mukesh Kumar got a hand to deflect Marsh’s straight drive onto the stumps.

The move for Pant to open saw Aiden Markram pushed down to No. 3. Last season, Markram and Marsh formed a successful opening pair, and had the second-most partnership runs in the season. Markram had made 445 runs at a strike rate of 148.82, making it his most successful IPL season.

The move also saw Nicholas Pooran pushed down the order from one-down, the position from where he played 12 of his 14 games last season as he racked up 524 runs, striking at 196.25. In fact, LSG sent Ayush Badoni above Pooran when they lost their second wicket in the sixth over.

“I think the idea was very simple. Like, [Pooran] is taking the charge in the middle overs. He’s not batting in the top order anymore because I’m batting up the order,” Pant said.

“And the swap [between Pooran and Badoni] happened because, you know, we wanted to explore that lefty-righty option at the top. So, they couldn’t bowl a left-arm spinner. Unfortunately, I got out at the wrong time.

“Otherwise, Axar [Patel] still had to bowl one over in the powerplay and that gives us the edge over them.”

“But at the same time, that’s part and parcel of the game and that’s the role we are defining for Badoni. When the situation is tough like that, when we lose early wickets, that’s the time he needs to make a mark.”

Pant also said that losing wickets in a heap forced their hand into bringing allrounder Shahbaz Ahmed on as their Impact Player in the first innings itself, which meant they couldn’t use legspinner Digvesh Rathi.

“The way we batted, because we couldn’t get a partnership going for a long, we had to get a batsman in who can bowl a little bit. And that was the option we had to take as Impact Player because we were short on runs in a good surface,” Pant said.

Shahbaz made an unbeaten 15 off 16, and ended up conceding 16 runs off the only over he bowled.

Chasing 142, DC were in early trouble as LSG reduced them to 26 for 4. However, Sameer Rizvi and Tristan Stubbs sealed the win for the visitors with an unbeaten 119-run stand. What also helped DC was LSG conceding 20 extras.

“Definitely extras hurt. But at the same time, you know, when a wicket like this happens, you are trying too much. Especially in a score like 140 where you have to get them out because if they play even normal cricket, they can get away,” Pant said. “But few extra crucial wickets in the starting actually put them on the back foot for sure.”