Lucknow: It has been an unusual season for Rishabh Pant. After sharing the joy of India's Champions Trophy success but not getting to play a role on the pitch, the wicketkeeper's IPL has got off to a subdued start.

With the bat, Pant was dismissed for nought in the loss to Delhi Capitals, the team he left to take over as Lucknow Super Giants skipper after being the biggest buy in the player auction, 15 in the win over Sunrisers Hyderabad and two in Tuesday's loss to Punjab Kings.

After the defeat to PBKS, Pant acknowledged that the tactic to cash in on home advantage had not worked. Pant said: "The idea was to get a slower wicket. We felt it is a home game; and it's going to stop a little bit. I think the slower ones, when bowled into the wicket, were still sticking in but we weren't good enough on the day. We have got to learn and move forward. It is our first home game. Still assessing the conditions," he said at the post-match presentation.

PBKS skipper Shreyas Iyer opted to bowl and Pant's dismissal, caught at short fine leg, added to LSG's batting woes, the eight-wicket loss leaving the team frustrated.

Team mentor Zaheer Khan though blamed the curator for the debacle, saying it appeared as if the opposition team's curator had prepared the pitch.

"It was quite disappointing for me as we had no home advantage here even though it was a home game for us and in IPL you have seen how teams have looked at taking a little bit of home advantage. From that point of view you've seen the curator is not really thinking that it's a home game. Maybe it looked like, you know, it was PBKS' curator out here," Zaheer said with a smile.

Interestingly, LSG in their pre-match training session on Monday evening chose to practice on a black soil pitch, allowing PBKS to do the homework on a red soil wicket which was used in the match. And PBKS made full use of the familiarity of conditions, chasing down a modest target of 172 in just 16.2 overs after their bowlers had left key LSG batters struggling on the two-paced strip.

LSG will be under pressure to turn things around as they face five-time champions Mumbai Indians on the same surface on Friday.

"We will certainly consider this pitch issue. It's a new set-up also for me as well as for everyone, but I hope this is the first and the last game when it comes to that. Because you are disappointing the Lucknow fans as well. They had come with so much expectations of winning the first home game here," said Zaheer.

"We accept that we have lost the game and we have got to do whatever it takes to make that impact on the home leg. As a team, we are confident. We still have six more games to go here, and this team have shown in the season so far, in whatever little cricket has been played that we have the right outlook and mindset to look at IPL," he said. "What you can expect is innovation, out-of-the-box thinking, the fight, the hunger, and that sums us up as a team."

Zaheer called for more support for the home team. "We considered the pitch as was told by the curator; even now we will go according to what the curator tells us. We are not using this as an excuse. We have seen during the last season that it's not like batters don't have to struggle here at times," he said.

"All these things go on in cricket. But the way the home team should get support, everyone needs to know this is our home team that is playing in Lucknow and what can we do to help them win? Everyone's contribution is important. We will find a way anyway to win matches."

It wasn't their batting alone, LSG's bowling unit too struggled as Shardul Thakur (0/39, 3 overs), Avesh Khan (0/30, 3 overs), Ravi Bishnoi (0/43, 3 overs) and Manimaran Siddharth (0/28, 3 overs) found PBKS batters hard to dislodge. Digvesh Rathi (2/30) was LSG's only successful bowler.