The main plot of the RR vs LSG match on Saturday, April 19 was how Avesh Khan was able to bowl his heart out and get a 2-run win for Lucknow.

LSG moved to 4th on the table with the win and remain in the hunt for a place in the play-offs.

However, a major talking point in the game continued to be the form of Rishabh Pant.

The LSG skipper, bought at the auction for 27 crores during the auction , This meant that his stats after 8 games read 106 runs off 108 balls at a strike-rate of 98.14 and an average of 15.14.

The fans hopped onto social media to troll the LSG skipper yet again after another failure with the bat.

Many said that Pant isn't meant for the T20 format, which is not the case. Last season, when he returned to the IPL after his accident, Pant scored 446 runs in 13 matches at an average of 40.55 and at a strike-rate of 155.40. So what's the change that Pant needs to do?

Follow vintage Kohli

Speaking to Cricbuzz, Manoj Tiwary talked about Pant's form and said that the LSG skipper should ditch the unconventional shots and play straight-bat cricket.

"Rishabh Pant is that kind of player - he is brimming with talent.

There is no need for him to go and play a reverse sweep right away, yet he does it. That's why Sunil Gavaskar got upset during the Test match in the Border-Gavaskar series. Even he knows that Pant has so much ability that he can score runs with straight-bat cricket. So why doesn't he do that? Why does he go for the unconventional?"

"Often what happens is when you're out of form, when runs aren't coming, as a batter you should aim to get 10, 12, or 13 runs in 7-8 balls - even if it takes 12 balls to make 10 runs, that's still fine, because you know you can cover it up in the later overs," said Tiwary.

Tiwary said that if Pant has to learn from someone it has to be Kohli. The star batter was always known to be the master of the chase, but most of his knocks were ones that got built up slowly before Kohli went in for the kill.

Tiwary said maybe Pant needs to do the same and slowly build his innings. The former India cricketer said that if Pant plays 40 balls, he can focus on getting singles and doubles for a big part of it and can target boundaries in the next ones.

"If he has to learn from someone, it should be Virat Kohli. When Kohli came into international cricket, he didn't play at a strike rate of 100 in the 50-over format.

He took his time - scored 7 runs in 10 balls, sometimes just 5 in 10 balls - but he kept building his innings. That's what Pant needs to do now - take a little time. It may not seem like it when you watch with your eyes that it's a 20-over match, so you feel like you need to go bang-bang and finish it off quickly. But there are 120 balls in a T20 innings."

"If you, as a batter, get around 80 of those, you'll likely share around 40 with your partner. Now break down those 40 balls - even if you hit just 10 boundaries and pick up 20-25 singles and a couple of twos, you'll automatically get past 50 runs," said Tiwary.

Tiwary said that at the moment, Pant is failing in the subject of cricket as he isn't learning from his mistakes.

"But if you don't think this wayBatting, bowling - all of it is a subject. Cricket is a subject. If you don't study it, and you don't go back and learn from your mistakes, you will keep failing. It's like going into an exam without studying - what will happen? You'll get red marks, right? And that's exactly what's happening here," said Tiwary.

So, for Pant, the role model to excel back in the subject of cricket is clear. A small tweak in approach can go a long way and Kohli should be used as the model. It wasn't long ago during the T20 World Cup 2024 when Kohli abandoned his hard-hitting attempts with the more calm and vintage gameplay.

The star batter and India reaped the rewards back then and maybe Pant needs to do the same.