Rishabh Pant

Rishabh Pant Set To Lead Lucknow Super Giants In IPL 2025

Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) have crowned Rishabh Pant as their new Captain, the franchise declared on Monday in Kolkata.

Rishabh Pant Is The Costliest Player In IPL History

Rishabh Pant was bought for a record-breaking INR 27 crore in the November 2024 IPL auction by LSG. He is now the most expensive player in IPL history. This will be Pant’s second IPL team after being the captain of Delhi Capitals (DC) during the 2021, 2022, and 2024 seasons. Injuries due to the severity of the hurt did not allow him to participate in the 2023 season.

Rishabh Pant Moves From Delhi Capitals To Lucknow Super Giants

Rishabh Pant made a move from DC after the franchise decided not to retain him as Captain even as they offered a place in the squad. He was subsequently opened up to entering the auction process, which the LSG side took to his advantage as he was signed on, in a bid to provide an Indian skipper, since KL Rahul bade goodbye from the outfit. Rahul had captained LSG from 2022 to 2024. In the first two seasons, he took LSG to the playoffs. In 2024, LSG finished seventh. The tensions between Rahul and the owner of the team, Sanjiv Goenka, were visibly visible in the match. This is the reason Rahul moved to Delhi Capitals.

Rishabh Pant’s Record-Breaking Auction Victory for LSG

After leading DC for several seasons, Rishabh Pant entered the auction ahead of IPL 2025 at a base price of INR 2 crore. The bidding was competitive, with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) challenging LSG. The Super Giants secured Pant for INR 27 crore after a dramatic back-and-forth, breaking the IPL auction record.

Rishabh Pant Leads New-Look Lucknow Super Giants Squad

LSG had actively been on a lookout for captaincy after deciding to let go of KL Rahul, and their first choice proved to be Rishabh Pant. Pant formed the core acquisition of the IPL franchise, helping LSG’s strategy of reinforcing their pace-bowling bench with Indian talent as well as signing foreign stars from Avesh Khan and Akash Deep up to Aiden Markram and Mitchell Marsh or David Miller.

Rishabh Pant To Team Up with Justin Langer and Zaheer Khan

Rishabh Pant will now head the Lucknow Super Giants along with head coach Justin Langer and mentor Zaheer Khan as they look to form a new competitive team for the upcoming IPL season.

However, one question still remains hanging. Will a change in Captain bring a change in fortunes for the Lucknow Super Giants?

The Sportz Planet Desk,
Atharva Shetye

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