Fresh information has surfaced regarding Rishabh Pant leaving Delhi Capitals.
Fresh information has surfaced regarding Rishabh Pant leaving Delhi Capitals. All the ten IPL franchises announced their player retentions on October 31, and quite shockingly, Delhi Capitals decided not to retain their captain Rishabh Pant. The Delhi-based franchise decided to stick with Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Tristan Stubbs and Abishek Porel and as a result, Pant’s nine-year-long association with Delhi Capitals came to an end. A PTI report has now revealed that Pant decided to leave the franchise after he felt his powers could be curbed by the owners.
Rishabh Pant was not retained by the Delhi Capitals. (AFP)
As per the report, the wicketkeeper was also unhappy with Delhi Capitals’ new coaching staff. It is important to mention that the franchise had recently appointed Hemang Badani as the head coach and Venugopal Rao as the director of cricket.
“In case of Pant, more than money, he was not happy about his powers being curbed by GMR, the co-owners, who will run the show for the next two years. He was also,it is learnt, not happy with Hemang Badani as head coach and Y Venugopal Rao as Team Director,” the PTI report states.
Pant’s nine-year-long association with Delhi Capitals ends
Rishabh Pant was bought by Delhi Capitals in 2016. The wicketkeeper-batter was retained by the franchise in the two previous mega auctions, but the recent update now paints a totally different picture.
Delhi Capitals share a 50-50 ownership between the JSW Group and the GMR Group. Each owner runs the franchise in tw-year cycles. The upcoming IPL 2025 and 2026 edition will be now under the direction of the GMR Group.
With GMR group coming in, Delhi Capitals have already decided to part ways with Ricky Ponting, who was the franchise’s head coach since 2018.
Former India captain Sourav Ganguly is also expected to have no role in Delhi Capitals’ men’s franchise for the next two years.
Pant now promises to be the most-sought after name in the mega auction this year. Lucknow Super Giants, Punjab Kings, Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Kolkata Knight Riders are all in need of a captain, and each is expected to bid for the young wicketkeeper-batter.
Delhi Capitals do have the option of right-to-match for Pant, but if he goes for more than ₹25 crore, the franchise would find it tough to buy back the wicketkeeper-batter.
Delhi Capitals have ₹73 crore left in their purse, and they need to pick 21 players with this amount of money.
For Delhi Capitals, Pant played 111 matches, scoring 3,284 runs at an average of 35.31 and strike rate of 148.93. His highest is 128 not out.
