Rishabh Pant's Potential Return to Delhi Capitals Ahead of IPL 2027

Rishabh Pant's Journey in IPL

After two seasons with the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), Rishabh Pant may be heading back to the Delhi Capitals (DC) prior to IPL 2027. Pant began his IPL journey with DC in 2016 and took on the captaincy role before the 2021 season. Although he seemed destined to remain with the franchise, he was unexpectedly released before the IPL 2025 mega-auction. Despite this, DC expressed interest in re-signing him and matched LSG's winning bid of ₹20.75 crore. However, they were unable to secure Pant due to new IPL regulations implemented before the auction. The BCCI allowed the winning team to raise their bid if the player's previous franchise opted to use the Right to Match (RTM) card. DC exercised their RTM option after LSG's winning bid.

According to the updated rules, LSG had the opportunity to enhance their bid, which they did, raising it to ₹27 crore—₹25 lakh more than Shreyas Iyer's bid of ₹26.75 crore from Punjab Kings (PBKS) just an hour earlier. Although DC could have used their RTM card at ₹27 crore, they opted not to. Pant made headlines by becoming the most expensive player in IPL history when he joined LSG for ₹27 crore.

Rishabh Pant's Performance with LSG

Rishabh Pant's Performance at LSG

During his tenure at LSG, Pant and the team faced challenges in both seasons. They secured only 6 victories out of 14 matches, finishing seventh in the points table. Pant's batting performance was underwhelming, accumulating just 269 runs throughout the season, with his only century coming after LSG was eliminated from the tournament.

In the 2026 season, Pant led LSG to a disappointing last-place finish, managing only 4 wins in 14 matches. His batting continued to falter, as he scored 312 runs in 13 innings, including just one half-century. Pant ultimately stepped down from the captaincy before the season concluded.