Rishabh Pant’s Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 season suffered another painful collapse on May 20, when Lucknow Super Giants suffered another defeat, this time at the hands of Rajasthan Royals and 15-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi. However, the LSG captain still refused to stop supporting his struggling side.

a few moments later LSG’s crushing defeat against Rajasthan RoyalsPant dropped the F-bomb live on television, while passionately insisting that his team was still a “good team”. Speaking at the post-match presentation after another painful night for LSG, Pant tried to defend the dressing room despite the growing criticism around the team.

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“As I said, we are proud as a team, no matter what our position is right now,” Pant said.

“The kind of team we have, we know we can win it. Whatever happens, we are quite confident as a team and as individuals. It hasn’t gone our way and everyone knows that,” Pant said.

“But that doesn’t take away from the fact that we’re a good team,” he said.

Jaipur’s defeat officially brings Lucknow to the bottom IPL 2026 table with just eight points from 13 matches, concluding a season that has spiraled badly for Pant and coach Justin Langer. And time made things more drastic. Earlier in the day, Pant had already lost India’s Test vice-captaincy and was also dropped from the ODI squad altogether for the Afghanistan series.

Pant’s own IPL 2026 campaign has mirrored the chaos that LSG is in now.

The wicketkeeper-batsman has scored 286 runs in 13 matches at an average of 28.60, but his batting rhythm, captaincy calls and overall body language have been under constant scrutiny. Even against Rajasthan, his 35 never looked entirely credible despite Marsh doing most of the damage at the other end.

How Vaibhav Suryavanshi and RR went through LSG again

For a while, Lucknow really looked set to end the season with a stellar performance.

Mitchell Marsh scored a blistering 96 off 57 balls, while Josh Inglis scored 60 off 29 balls, helping LSG reach 220 for five in Jaipur.

But Rajasthan Royals never really allowed that score to put pressure on the scoreboard.

After being dropped from his ODI team at the beginning of the day, Yashasvi Jaiswal came out aggressively and dismissed Akash Singh for 23 runs in the very first over. Once Jaiswal was out for 43, the game soon became another Vaibhav Suryavanshi show.

The 15-year-old sensation scored 93 runs off just 38 balls and completely tore apart the LSG bowling attack. His innings took him to the top of the Orange Cap standings and once again showed why he has become one of the biggest stories of IPL 2026.

Dhruv Jurel finished things off calmly with an unbeaten half-century as Rajasthan chased down the target of 221 with five balls to spare to stay in the playoff race.

However, for LSG, the defeat sums up their entire season.

Huge sums have not been enough. Individual talent has been wasted time and again. And every time it seemed that Lucknow would finally stabilize itself, another collapse arrived.

They now head into their final game against Punjab Kings with nothing but pride and a chance to avoid finishing the season at the lowest ever level.

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