Rishabh Pant has shown his gratitude towards the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) after the franchise made him the most expensive pick at the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 mega auction, deciding to pay the wicketkeeper a whopping Rs 27 crore. Going past the record of Rs 26.75 crore Shreyas Iyer had set mere minutes ago.
Rishabh Pant thanks LSG
In a video uploaded by LSG on their social media, Pant can be heard saying, “I am really excited to be part of LSG. Thank you, management, for showing lots of faith in me and really looking forward to making a lot of memories.”
Why Rishabh Pant wasn’t retained by DC
No one had expected that DC and Pant would part ways. But, unexpectedly, that happened. When the list for retentions was announced, Pant was nowhere to be found. It was reported that Pant was ‘hurt’ by the franchise’s decision. Some said he asked for way too much money from the franchise for his retention, but the wicketkeeper refused such claims.
Replying to Sunil Gavaskar’s comment on why Pant was retained, he wrote, “My retention wasn’t about the money for sure that I can say.” Something wasn’t right between Pant and the GMR Group. Before the retentions were made, DC announced that GMR, co-owners with the JSW Group, would take control of their men’s side for the next two seasons (until 2026).
They changed head coaches (Ricky Ponting to Hemang Badani) and Director of Cricket (Sourav Ganguly to Venugopal Rao), but it wasn’t expected they’d change their captain. Now, they’ve decided to get KL Rahul as Pant’s replacement, going with the same wicketkeeper batter as their captain approach.
Rishabh Pant IPL/DC stats
| Matches | Runs | Average | Strike Rate | 100s | 50s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 132 | 4683 | 45.46 | 134.60 | 4 | 37 |
