Indian wicket-keeping batter Rishabh Pant might leave the Delhi Capitals ahead of IPL 2025. The franchises are required to submit their retentions by 31st October and there are reports/rumors that Rishabh Pant will leave the Delhi franchise.
The Delhi Capitals franchise is co-owned by the JSW Sports and the GMR Group. Each party manages the men’s franchise for two years with the other one looking after the franchise in the WPL during that phase.
The Parth Jindal-owned JSW Sports was managing the Delhi Capitals in the IPL for the last two years and now it will be managed by Kiran Gandhi’s GMR Group. Reports are that the GMR Group are not very keen on retaining the current Delhi skipper Rishabh Pant or at least they don’t want Pant to lead the franchise.
Eventually, it will come down to Rishabh Pant if he wants to stay in the DC franchise or not. We will get to know about that in just more than a week.
CSK or RCB amongst teams interested in Rishabh Pant
Rishabh Pant was appointed as the captain of the Delhi Capitals back in 2021. DC was knocked out by KKR in the second qualifier that season. Pant led the team in 2022 when they finished in the 5th position and then he got into that horrific accident and missed the 2023 season. He came back as the skipper in 2024 but DC failed to qualify for the play-offs in the last season as well.
With the current managing group not very keen on continuing Pant as the captain of the franchise, he’ll be tempted to make a move to a new franchise. Pant also posted on “X” (formerly Twitter) asking his followers “what they think he would go for in the IPL auction?” Time will tell whether it was intentional or just a normal post from the left-hand batter.
Pant is known for his explosive and unorthodox style of batting. He can bat anywhere in the order and has the experience of leading a franchise. All of this makes him a very rare commodity in the Indian Premier League and it’s not surprising that many franchises will look to get him on their side.
The Chennai Super Kings with uncertainties over MS Dhoni’s IPL career will be the front-runner if Pant opts to make a switch. There were rumors earlier that CSK was in talks with the player for a possible switch. Another big name will be the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) who are also looking for a wicket-keeper batter in the middle order after Dinesh Karthik retired from the IPL.