New Delhi. A big and high-profile trade has been seen in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Rishabh Pant is returning to his old franchise Delhi Capitals (DC) after spending two poor seasons as the captain of Lucknow Super Giants (LSG). However, for this comeback, Pant has had to face a huge cut of Rs 12 crore in his salary. Under this exchange of players with Delhi Capitals’ star wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav, Pant has become a part of the Delhi team for Rs 15 crore.
Lucknow bought it for a record amount of Rs 27 crores.
It is noteworthy that in the mega auction held before IPL 2025, Lucknow Super Giants had bought Rishabh Pant for a huge amount of Rs 27 crore, which was the biggest bid so far in the history of the league. At that time, Lucknow owner Sanjeev Goenka had talked about being associated with Pant for a long time. But after two consecutive weak seasons, the franchise management decided to release Pant on the advice of the Australian coaching team comprising Justin Langer and Tom Moody.
Kuldeep Yadav reached Lucknow Super Giants
In the other part of this big trade, ace left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav has left Delhi Capitals for his current fee of Rs 13.50 crore and moved to Lucknow Supergiants.
This journey is like ‘homecoming’ for Pant
Coming to Delhi Capitals is like a homecoming for Rishabh Pant. He played a total of 111 matches for Delhi Capitals between 2016 and 2024 and was an important part of this team till he went to the big auction. Pant was also the captain of the team from 2021 to 2024 and during this period he led Delhi in 43 matches.
Pant’s struggle in captaincy and batting with Lucknow
Rishabh Pant’s performance with Lucknow Super Giants has not lived up to expectations on both the captaincy and batting fronts. The IPL 2025 team had secured seventh position in the points table with 6 wins and 8 losses. This season, Pant scored only 269 runs in 14 matches. The IPL 2026 season was even worse. Under the captaincy of Pant, Lucknow team remained at the bottom (10th) in the league of 10 teams. The team got only 4 wins in 14 matches and stood last in the table with 8 points. Even in batting, Pant scored 312 runs in 14 matches, which included only one half-century.
Kuldeep Yadav also had an ordinary last season
On the other hand, Kuldeep Yadav performed brilliantly after coming to Delhi Capitals from Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in IPL 2022, taking 72 wickets in a total of 65 matches. But the IPL 2026 season was quite ordinary for him too. Kuldeep took only 10 wickets in 14 matches this season and during this his economy rate was 10.30 runs per over. Now it remains to be seen how both the players perform for their new teams after this big change.
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