Rishabh Pant is all set to captain Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) ahead of IPL 2025. Pant became the most expensive IPL player in the November mega auction last year, when he was bought by LSG for Rs 27 crore (about US$ 3.21 million). India wicketkeeper-batsman KL Rahul led LSG for its first three seasons (from 2022). The team made the play-offs in the first two years, although they did not reach the finals. The 2024 season was much worse and the team finished seventh.
LSG is the best team in IPL for Pant LSG is second team in IPL for Pant. Earlier he started his career in IPL in 2016 with Delhi Capitals. At that time, Daredevils (previously known as Delhi Capitals) bought him for Rs 1.6 crore in the 2016 auction. Pant has also captained Delhi Capitals. He was made captain in 2021. He was ruled out of the IPL in 2023 due to an accident. He was also the captain of Delhi in 2024.
Before the auction, LSG retained five players LSG retained Nicholas Pooran, Ravi Bishnoi, Mayank Yadav, Ayush Badoni and Mohsin Khan, however, they were looking for an Indian player to replace Rahul as captain. Pant tops his list along with Shreyas Iyer. There was a race between LSG and SRH to get Pant in the auction. His bid was Rs. 20.75 crores, later SRH retreated. LSG raised it to Rs 27 crore to face a right-to-match challenge from Delhi Capitals.
Players like Miller, Marsh and Markram also in LSG Pant will be joined by overseas batsmen David Miller, Mitchell Marsh and Aiden Markram and Indian seamers Akash Deep and Aweesh Khan in the new LSG squad. Pooran, Marsh, Markram and Miller were also potential captaincy options after the auction ended.
Pant will now work closely with head coach Justin Langer, whom he interacted with during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia, and will be joined by new team mentor Zaheer Khan.
Image Credit: Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).