The pressure of a price tag: How difficult was it for Rishabh Pant and Venkatesh Iyer?

LSG captain Rishabh Pant gestures during an IPL match in Lucknow (AFP)

“Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better” — Samuel Beckett

Rs 27 crore and Rs 23.75 crore respectively. These figures are such that they will send a chill down anyone’s spine. And when young men of 25-26 have to justify the price tag, it can just turn into a kind of pressure that’s too tough to bear. Rishabh Pant and Venkatesh Iyer are glaring examples.

Make no mistake both had their worst IPL seasons of all. Pant just couldn’t score while Iyer could never make an impact on KKR’s campaign. But then that’s sport. You will fail far more than you will win and its real and not reel. Pant and Iyer need to go back to the drawing board, accept that it was a painful season, introspect and come back stronger. In fact, there are already murmurs if they will be traded and a former player asked me the other day if these murmurs are true. If regional newspaper reports are to be believed, talks are very much on.

Before we deep dive, some facts need to be tabled. First, neither Rishabh nor Venkatesh orchestrated the price. LSG and KKR found them worthy enough to pay these amounts and they had no hand in it. So for anyone to say ‘Oh he was paid 27 crore or 23.75 crore’ is actually unfair on the young men.

That’s what forces me to ask the question- how difficult is it for someone like Rishabh? Or Venkatesh? While it is fantastic for the player and the family to be paid Rs 27 crore or Rs 23.75 crore, once the thing settles in the money can be a huge burden to deal with. All of a sudden people start to expect the world from them. It is as if because they have been paid Rs 27 or Rs 23.75 crore they have to do extraordinary things in every game. The truth is Rishabh as a player hasn’t changed. The money he received at the auction has changed. And that’s all that there is to it. For him, he remains the player he was and will only attempt to get better. Like every other star he is going through a slump and will surely come out of it sooner than later.

IPL 2025 was a test of his temperament. He failed and he needs to accept it. To what extent could he cocoon himself from the outside pressures and look inward? All he needed to do was focus on his cricket and leave out the noise. Easier said than done. When social media trolls are at it all the time and question you 24/7, things do get to you more often than not.

While it is easy to say and write, it is certainly not easy to do in real life when intrusiveness is at an all time high. Whatever happens from here on, Rishabh and Venkatesh will be more mature cricketers after this IPL. Better people who are better equipped to deal with the world. And that, at the end of the day, is a far bigger life lesson than anything else for these young men.

We don’t know if LSG will win the next two games. Or if Rishabh will score some runs. Last night was painful to say the least. We don’t know if Venkatesh will do anything meaningful for KKR in the last couple of games either. But what we do know is Rishabh is used to handling pressure. And that more than anything gives us hope. India will need Rishabh Pant in England and it is essential for him to recalibrate and reboot. He is India’s best ever overseas batter keeper and India will need him more than ever in England. Failure should harden him and get him ready. He has done so in the past and it is expected will do so again. For now he needs to forget the price tag and go back to the drawing board.