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Rishabh Pant hit the headlines in November 2024 after getting sold for a heavy sum of INR 27 crore to Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 auction. With this gigantic amount, the wicket-keeper batter became the costliest player in history of the league. In 2024, he was the highest run-scorer for Delhi Capitals (DC) with 446 runs in 13 matches at a strike rate of 155.40. In January 2025, LSG named Rishabh captain of their side for the season. The 27-year-old will be expected to exude confidence with both batting and leadership in the upcoming T20 extravaganza.
The captaincy mantle and colossal IPL amount might get the best out of Pant, who is known for his explosive batting style in T20 cricket. As a batter, his responsibility will be to provide support to the team in the middle order. Numbers corroborate that the leadership responsibility has helped him to be more formidable with his bat. His strike rate in the league saw a massive decline from 162.66 in 2019 to 113.95 in 2020. In 2021, he was appointed the skipper of DC and his strike rate got better with 128.52 in the season.
Pant returned to the league in 2024 after staying out of cricket for 14 months
Pant returned to the league in 2024 after recovering from the horrendous car accident which he went through in December 2022. Handling the captaincy mantle, he couldn’t take DC ahead of the round-robin stage but his batting performance was commendable. Following IPL 2024, he also did a decent job for India in the World Cup 2024.
In India’s second title triumph, he chipped in with 171 runs in eight matches at a strike rate of 127.61. The presence of his senior international colleagues such as David Miller and Mitchell Marsh in the LSG camp will also have a positive effect on Pant, who will strive to justify his huge IPL price in the T20 extravaganza to be played from March 22.
