Interview With Anjum Chopra: Rishabh Pant Can Turn It Around in IPL 2025
In an interview with The Quint, Anjum Chopra has voiced her support for Rishabh Pant.
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Rishabh Pant, Indian Premier League’s (IPL) most expensive player of all time, could not have asked for a more difficult start to his life at Lucknow Super Giants. Signed for Rs 27 crore, Pant has only scored 17 runs in three matches at an average of 5.66, which also includes a duck.
Former captain of the Indian women’s cricket team, Anjum Chopra, however, feels Pant can make a comeback, as he has so often done in his career. Here are the excerpts of Anjum Chopra’s exclusive chat with The Quint:
We are nearly two weeks into the competition. What is your initial assessment? Which teams have room for improvement?
I think all teams have loads of room for improvement, because all matches have been very competitive. Everyone has played in different conditions. For example, RCB have looked good. They were out of their comfort zone in Kolkata and Chennai, but still they won. However, it is just the start of the tournament.
What has been very consistent is that no one is very sure about what target to put up on the board. The second consistent thing has been the kind of explosive batting we have seen, even if we have not had too many big scores. Teams are looking to score big, because they don’t know what sort of a score can be defended.
Rishabh Pant has found life difficult at Lucknow Super Giants. Can he turn it around?
I feel he is going to have a decent season, he can turn it around, but batting at number four will be tricky for Rishabh. He has his own style of playing— whether it is right or wrong is debatable, but it’s different.
With Aiden Markram and Mitchell Marsh opening, where does Rishabh fit in? The position he has been given is challenging, so it needs to be seen if he can handle it. He is a good cricketer with a great cricketing brain. He has won matches for India. This is just another challenge in his career. We are eager to see how Rishabh overcomes this phase.
Although the impact player rule is here to stay, there is an argument that it is responsible for the inflated scores we see in IPL matches these days. What’s your take on it?
People come to see fours and sixes, so we can't say that we should not have runs being scored because that’s becoming the norm. But we need to have that balance in the game as well.
If we scrap the impact player rule, it is definitely going to make a difference. You can't change your playing XI, and you have to rely on all-rounders. That will bring teams back to the same setup as it was three years ago.
But there is another thing – the dew factor. Yes, we can't do anything about it because it's the weather, but when it becomes that wet in the outfield and that difficult for the bowlers, something should be done. At least this season, we have the ball getting changed after the 10th over, which is one good thing for the bowling side in the second half.
As we progress, if this is the way cricket is evolving, we need to have a little more empathy and sympathy towards the bowlers. If we can find a way to take dew out of the equation, we will have a much fairer game than we have now.
We have quite a few new captains this season. Rajat Patidar has been impressive, while although Riyan Parag was a stop-gap captain, he had a challenging time. What did you make of them?
It would be unfair to say Riyan Parag failed because he lost the first two games, or to say Rajat Patidar was a great success because he won the first two. I personally feel captaincy of a franchise team in the IPL is no less of a pressure situation than captaining the Indian team.
When you captain your national side, the importance and value are obviously different — I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the expectations and pressure that the players go through. Captaining an IPL side with stars and stalwarts from different countries provides a different kind of pressure altogether.
It’s too early to judge the new captains. I won’t judge them. I’ll just see where they were before becoming captains and where they are at the end of the season. If they continue as captains next season, then I will start analyzing their progress from last season to this one.
Judging captaincy in the first season would be very difficult and unfair because players and teams are still settling in after the auction. But if a player is making a massive impact with their captaincy, that has to be acknowledged. Those compliments will come as we go along.
Like always, we also have seen a few unknown youngsters rising to fame. Who has caught your eye?
All of them, to be honest, because everyone has done so well. Credit should be given to the scouts. Look at Vignesh Puthur for example. He is bowling so well, and he has not even played first-class cricket. A reputed franchise with a strong talent identification system streamlining players into the mainstream slowly and steadily — that’s what I call a well-oiled setup. It’s heartening to see, irrespective of whether the team wins or not.
Look at how Priyansh Arya batted with Shreyas Iyer or Prabhsimran Singh. Holding his ground, playing his game. He has been so impressive.
As an Indian, you feel proud seeing this. It speaks volumes about the strength of our cricket system — the scouting, the training, the nurturing. These players are jumping straight onto a moving bus and performing. It’s a testament to everyone involved in their journey.
We are still early doors in the competition, but can you predict favourites?
It is too early to predict anything. Look at how unpredictable the matches have been. On paper, Gujarat Titans have the best bowling attack. But then they conceded 240 runs in their first match!
So, to say that a certain team has the best bowling or batting lineup doesn’t mean much. Punjab Kings have a brilliant batting lineup, that has to be said. Kolkata Knight Riders, too. If you have Ramandeep Singh walking at number 8 or 9, you know your batting is stacked.
And then there’s Mumbai Indians —where new faces making an impact. So, it’s early to say who can clinch the title. It’s about who plays better cricket on that day, in those conditions.
Once the toss happens, you still don’t know who will win after three and a half hours. As my friend Murali Karthik says, there are no easy deliveries in the IPL. Every ball is an event. You don’t know if it will favor the batter or the bowler.
Ishan Kishan had a wonderful debut for Sunrisers Hyderabad, which has led to many asking for his reintegration into the Indian squad. Do you think he deserves the national contract?
I’ve seen Ishan Kishan score a double hundred for India in Bangladesh. He’s a solid player, and a good fielder too. It is sad that Ishan Kishan is not in the Indian team, but look at the competition. Even Sanju Samson and Dhruv Jurel are fighting for a place. Rishabh Pant just can’t get in.
Nobody pushed Ishan out of the team. Situations changed, opportunities came for others, and he had to make way. The bench strength India has right now is incredible. Whoever plays knows they have to make an impact.
Ishan himself said, “You have to hit every ball.” Yes, you have to — because every ball is an event. That’s the kind of impact every wicketkeeper-batter is making.
It’s tough, but playing for India was never easy. It wasn’t easy in any era, and it’s only getting more competitive now.
Will ‘Abki Baar 300 Paar’ be a reality?
If you want a yes or no answer, my answer is no. Not that I can’t see it happening, but that I don’t want it to happen. Because if we have scores of 300+ in a T20 game, what will be left for the bowlers? Have some pity on them.