There is something strangely poetic about Sanjiv Goenka and wicketkeeper-captains. He keeps choosing them like a man convinced the next one will finally understand him. First MS Dhoni at Rising Pune Supergiant. Then KL Rahul at Lucknow Super Giants.
Then Rishabh Pant, bought for a record ₹27 crorehanded the LSG captaincy, backed through one poor season, and now relieved of leadership after an even worse one. Three eras. Three big Indian names. Three wicketkeeper-captains. Three endings.
To be fair, all three cases are not exactly the same. Dhoni was removed as captain. Rahul was not retained after a public breakdown in the relationship. Rishabh Pant officially requested to step down, and LSG accepted. But cricket is not only played in legal wording.
It is also played in vibes, optics and patterns. And the pattern is hard to ignore: Sanjiv Goenka loves investing heavily in Indian keeper-captains, but when the team does not meet the performance benchmark, the relationship turns colder than a low-scoring Lucknow pitch.
Sanjiv Goenka’s franchise logic is not difficult to understand. Indian wicketkeeper-captains are rare assets. They bat, keep, lead, sell jerseys, front campaigns and become the face of a project. That is why Dhoni made sense for RPSG in 2016, Rahul made sense for LSG in 2022, and Rishabh Pant made sense in 2025. The problem is that Sanjiv Goenka’s projects do not seem to tolerate emotional cushioning for long. If the numbers fall, the romance gets audited.
MS Dhoni and RPSG: The original shock before Sanjiv Goenka made it a pattern
The first chapter was the boldest because it involved MS Dhoniand removing Dhoni from captaincy in Indian cricket is not a decision; it is a national event. In 2016Rising Pune Supergiant signed Dhoni as their first draft pick for ₹12.5 crorearound 19.2% of the ₹66 crore purse. He was the franchise face, the biggest leadership brand in the IPL, and the most successful Indian captain of his generation.
But RPSG finished 7th out of 8 teams in 2016, with only five wins and nine defeats. Dhoni scored 284 runs in 14 matches at an average of 31.55 and a strike rate of 135.23. These were not horrible individual numbers, but the team return was poor. Sanjiv Goenka then made the highly unpopular decision to remove him as captain and hand the role to Steve Smith before the 2017 season.
The backlash was huge, because this was Dhoni. Fans did not see a franchise call; they saw disrespect. Goenka defended it by saying some decisions are not popular, but are taken based on the approach the franchise wants. He also said RPSG wanted to go with a younger captain. The move was controversial, but the immediate result strengthened Sanjiv Goenka’s argument: RPSG finished second in 2017 and reached the final.
That episode told everyone something important about Sanjiv Goenka’s ownership style. Reputation matters, but results matter more. Even Dhoni’s aura did not protect him from a captaincy reset after a poor team season. It was the first sign that in Goenka’s world, captaincy is not a sacred throne. It is a performance contract with a very short emotional warranty.
KL Rahul and LSG: The calm captaincy project that ended in a public freeze
The second chapter came with KL Rahuland this one was slower, quieter, then suddenly very public. Before the 2022 season, LSG picked Rahul as their foundational draft player for ₹17 crorearound 18.8% of the ₹90 crore purse. He was made captain immediately, and at first the move worked. LSG made the playoffs in 2022with Rahul scoring 616 runsand again remained competitive in 2023 before his injury disrupted the campaign.
But by 2024the project had started to lose shape. Rahul scored 520 runswhich looks fine on the surface, but LSG finished 7th out of 10 and missed the playoffs. His batting tempo was questioned, the team’s identity blurred, and the pressure around his leadership grew. Then came the infamous May 8, 2024, match against Sunrisers Hyderabad, where SRH chased LSG’s 165 in just 9.4 oversdestroying Lucknow’s net run rate to -0.769.
After the match, cameras caught Sanjiv Goenka having an animated, visibly frustrated conversation with Rahul on the field. It became one of the most uncomfortable images of that IPL season. Fans felt Rahul had been publicly dressed down. The franchise may have had its explanations, but optics do not wait for context. The relationship never really looked the same after that.
Ahead of the 2025 mega auction, LSG did not retain Rahul. He went back into the auction pool and later moved to Delhi Capitals. In pure cricket terms, it was a reset. In emotional IPL terms, it looked like the captaincy marriage had ended after a very public argument outside the reception hall.
Rahul’s case showed the second part of the Sanju Goenka pattern. If Dhoni’s removal showed that reputation would not guarantee captaincy, Rahul’s exit showed that even decent personal numbers would not protect a captain if the team direction looked wrong. Goenka’s franchise did not just want runs. It wanted wins, tempo, leadership optics and a team that looked like it was moving forward.
God is real
No matter what kind of player KL Rahul is but after behavior Sanjeev Goenka nothing good has been happening for LSG
How can someone behave with captain of your team like this after just losing game in front of Everyone pic.twitter.com/yaDZhc12P2
— Shah (@Shahhoon1) April 19, 2026
Also READ: Rishabh Pant gives up LSG captaincy after last-place IPL 2026 finish
Rishabh Pant and LSG: The ₹27 crore bet that became loudest reset
Then came Rishabh Pantthe most expensive and most dramatic chapter yet. LSG bought Pant for a record ₹27 crore in the 2025 mega auction, around 22.5% of the ₹120 crore purse. That was not a normal signing. That was a franchise declaration. Pant was not just bought to bat. He was bought to lead, to sell the new era, to become the face of Lucknow Super Giants.
But the first season did not justify the noise. In IPL 2025Pant scored 269 runs in 13 inningsand LSG managed only six wins in 14 league matchesmissing the playoffs. Still, Goenka backed him for IPL 2026even publicly dismissing talk around his captaincy before the season. The message was clear: Pant remained central.
Then 2026 happened, and it got worse. LSG finished 10th out of 10 teamswith only four wins and ten defeats. pants scored 312 runs in 14 matches at an average of 28.36 and a strike rate of 138.05with only one half-century, a highest score of 68. Again, these are not ‘cannot play cricket’ numbers. But they are not ₹27 crore captain numbers either. At that price, you are expected to shape matches, not merely appear in them.
The financial pressure made it louder. Rishabh Pant at ₹27 crore and Nicholas Pooran at ₹21 crore meant LSG had ₹48 croreroughly 40% of their pursetied up in two players. Add Mayank Yadav at ₹11 croreMohammed Shami at ₹10 croreand Avesh Khan at ₹9.75 croreand this was a top-heavy squad built around expensive certainty. Instead, LSG got last place.
That is why Rishabh Pant stepping down feels less like a surprise and more like the inevitable end of an over-budget project. The official line is that Rishabh Pant requested to be relieved of the captaincy and the franchise accepted it. That may be true. It may also be the most polite way to say both sides knew the leadership burden had become too heavy. Rishabh Pant looked burdened as captain, his batting never fully opened up, and LSG desperately need a reset before 2027.
For Rishabh Pant, stepping down may actually be the best thing. He remains a rare batter when free. Rishabh Pant is instinctive, chaotic, dangerous and at his best when not carrying a franchise’s full corporate mood on his shoulders. Remove the captaincy and maybe LSG get the real Rishabh Pant back. Keep the burden, and they risk turning a ₹27 crore player into a weekly pressure experiment.
So yes, after Dhoni, Rahul and Rishabh Pant, we can say Sanjiv Goenka has now had three major wicketkeeper-captain chapters and badly. The technical details differ, but the theme is too obvious to ignore. Sanjiv Goenka loves the idea of the Indian keeper-captain as franchise centrepiece. The gloves, the bat, the leadership, the star power, the marketing pull; it all makes sense on paper.
But the moment the team underperforms, the love story starts sounding like a boardroom review.
That is the real headline here. Sanjiv Goenka is not anti-wicketkeeper-captain. If anything, he may be too attracted to the profile. He keeps buying the most premium version available, then holding it to premium standards. Dhoni, Rahul and Rishabh Pant were not cheap emotional investments. They were franchise-defining bets. And when those bets did not deliver the team returned, the captaincy did not survive.
Maybe LSG now needs to think differently. Maybe the next captain does not need to be a superstar wicketkeeper. Maybe the face of the batting and the leader of the team can be different people. Maybe Rishabh Pant should just bat, keep and rediscover the joy that made him special. Maybe Sanjiv Goenka should avoid the next auction aisle marked ‘Indian wicketkeeper with captaincy aura,’ at least until someone hides his paddle.
Because once is a decision. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is a franchise genre.
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