Rishabh Pant promoted himself up the order in Lucknow Super Giants opening defeat to Delhi Capitals but the skipper isn't sure whether he would be facing the new ball through out the entire course of Indian Premier League this season. Pant (7) was run-out at non-striker's end after Mukesh Kumar of DC deflected a straight hit from Mitchell Marsh but the data indicates that the flamboyant left-hander has been at his best when he has opened the innings. In 23 games that he has opened across all T20s, his strike-rate has been 159 with a century and five fifties.

"It's a 50-50 call," Pant said when asked if he would continue opening throughout instead of the crack pair of Aiden Markram and Mitchell Marsh. Asked about his run-out, Pant said: "The best way to recover is to ignore the run-out. You can't control something like that, but thinking about it puts you under pressure." He also conceded that he was forced to bring in all-rounder Shahbaz Ahmed as an Impact Sub after a batting collapse which effectively ended a chance to play a specialist spinner in Digvesh Rathi. "We didn't secure a partnership, so we had to use the option as an impact sub because we were a few runs short."