Watch: Rishabh Pant plays kids' game with Shardul Thakur, Akash Deep to decide who opens bowling vs MI

The Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) skipper Rishabh Pant pulled off a bizarre move during the 16th match of the Indian Premier League 2025 (IPL) against the Mumbai Indians (MI).

Rishabh Pant was seen playing a kids' game to decide his team's crucial strategy at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow on Friday, April 4.

Also Read: Watch: Hardik Pandya makes history, becomes first captain ever to take 5-wicket haul in IPL

Rishabh Pant fails again with the bat

The 27-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman was acquired by the Lucknow Super Giants for a record-breaking INR 27 crore at the Indian Premier League 2025 mega auction, and so far, he has failed to justify his price tag.

He started off his campaign with the new franchise with a duck and followed it up with scores of 15 and 2 in the next two matches.

In the ongoing game against MI as well, Rishabh Pant was unable to play a good innings for his team. He managed to score 2 runs off 6 balls, before being dismissed by Hardik Pandya.

Meanwhile, Rishabh Pant was seen doing a bizarre yet funny thing ahead of the commencement of the second innings as the Mumbai Indians openers were about to come out to bat.

Pant was seen standing alongside Shardul Thakur, Akash Deep, and Ayush Badoni, seemingly deciding who would open the bowling. Rishabh Pant opted to play a kids' game with pacers to make the crucial decision and eventually decided to hand over the ball to Shardul Thakur.

Shardul bowled the first over while Akash Deep bowled the second, dismissing Will Jacks on the fourth ball. Notably, Ryan Rickelton and Will Jacks opened the innings for the Mumbai Indians. The last time any foreign pair (Mike Hussey and Lendl Simmons) opened the batting for MI in the IPL was on 28th May 2014, against CSK at Brabourne Stadium.

Watch: Rishabh Pant Plays Silly Game to Decide Bowler

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So they want a road-like pitch - Aakash Chopra on LSG

Speaking ahead of the match, Aakash Chopra spoke about the pitch controversy involving Lucknow Super Giants after the team mentor Zaheer Khan had said that the pitch prepared for the LSG vs. PBKS clash favored Punjab Kings. He elaborated:

"There was a lot of commotion about this Ekana pitch because there was a lot of help in this pitch. If we see the last match against Punjab, the ball was moving left and right, and was also stopping a little. It did not suit Lucknow's plan because all their overseas players are batters.

"Batters need a slightly good pitch. All of them are strokemakers, and they didn't like it. This team doesn't want help. They think their bowling is so weak that they should make it a bat-vs-bat contest and win with planning with the ball because they might remain far behind skill-wise. So they want a road-like pitch," he added.

"If they prepare such a pitch and have a bat-vs-bat contest, will the scales be genuinely tilted towards Lucknow? I am not 100% convinced because you might see a slight weakness in Mumbai's bowling since Bumrah is not there as of now, but the batting is strong. I don't feel Lucknow's batting is far superior."