Picture Credit: BCCI/IPL
Star Indian wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant, has finally opened up on being released by his previous Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise, Delhi Capitals (DC). Pant, who is currently prepping for the highly-anticipated five-match Test series against Australia, confirmed that his split with the Delhi-based franchise was not about money.
Pant’s comments came after one of the broadcasters, including legendary Indian batter Sunil Gavaskar tried to explain the reason behind DC not retaining Pant ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auction.
My retention wasn’t about money: Rishabh Pant
After Sunil Gavaskar suggested that Delhi Capitals and Rishabh Pant might have disagreed over the Indian cricketer’s retention fee during an interaction on Star Sports, the wicketkeeper-batter took to X to drop a shocking comment, revealing that it wasn’t about money. 'My retention wasn’t about the money for sure that I can say,' Rishabh Pant said in his reply to the post on X, formerly Twitter.
'What I feel is Delhi Capitals would want Rishabh Pant back in their squad. Sometimes, when a player has to be retained, there are talks between the franchise and players over the fees, as expected. As some of the players who have been retained by their franchises, they have gone for more than what the No. 1 retention fee deduction would be. So clearly, I think there may be some disagreement there. But, my feeling is Delhi would want Rishabh Pant back,' Gavaskar had told Star Sports.
Speaking Delhi Capitals retention, they went with Axar Patel, who bagged INR 16.5 Crore price money. Apart from him, Kuldeep Yadav was retained for a sum of INR 13.5 Crore, along with Tristan Stubbs (INR 10 Crore) and uncapped wicketkeeper Abishek Porel (INR 4 Crore).
