Revealed- Why Rishabh Pant was given INR 27 crore by Lucknow Super Giants
Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) owner Sanjiv Goenka has made a massive revelation about Rishabh Pant being given such a big price in the IPL 2025 auction. He claimed that they knew Delhi Capitals were crazy for keeper batter and could get him easily.
The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 auction took place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia last month. The event saw a lot of records getting shattered, and one among them was the highest bid for any player. It was broken by none other than Indian Superstar Rishabh Pant, who was brought by Lucknow Super Giants.
Rishabh Pant, who parted ways with Delhi Capitals ahead of the auction, was expected to fetch a huge amount of bid because of the kind of impact that he brings into the team. The keeper-batter was involved in a bidding war between Lucknow Super Giants and Sunrisers Hyderabad.
However, it was Delhi Capitals who had almost sealed the deal at INR 20.75 crore. This came after they used the RTM card when the bid went in favour of Lucknow Super Giants. But the Sanjiv Goenka-owned franchise came up with a massive bid for Delhi Capitals.
Sanjiv Goenka raised the peddle at INR 27 crore and it was difficult for Delhi Capitals to match the bid. As a result of that, Rishabh Pant was sold to Lucknow Super Giants, and he became the costliest buy in the history of the league.
Parth Jindal is so crazy for Rishabh Pant, he would go one up at the IPL Auction’ - Sanjiv Goenka
Sanjiv Goenka claimed that Parth Jindal was crazy for Rishabh Pant and they knew that they went at 26.5 Cr for Shreyas Iyer and could go till there for Pant. He added that they had three scenarios for the keeper-batter and he was important for them. Speaking on TRS, he explained:
"There was science behind, going at 27 Cr for Rishabh Pant. They went at 26.5 Cr for Shreyas Iyer. So, then my feeling was, ‘Parth Jindal is so crazy for Rishabh Pant, he would go one up at the IPL Auction’. So the idea was to go two up from him, or even three up, and that is where he would stop. For Rishabh, we had calculated three scenarios, and in all of them, he was very important to us."
We knew we would go for him and we had kept around 25-27 Cr for him - Sanjiv Goenka on Rishabh Pant
While further talking about the same, Sanjiv Goenka claimed that they sensed that Delhi Capitals were willing to go to the full extent. He added:
“We knew we would go for him and we had kept around 25-27 Cr for him. So when the bidding stopped for Rishabh at 21-22 Cr, DC did not waste even a second to RTM him. So that means they were willing to go to the full extent. He wasn’t retained in a different circumstance, and it is not right for me to discuss all that, but they were keen for sure,”
Rishabh Pant was the heart and soul of Delhi Capitals. He has played 111 games in the tournament and has also mustered 3284 runs at an average and strike rate of 35.31 and 148.93 respectively. He also has hit 18 fifties and one ton.
