Rishabh Pant’s exit as Lucknow Super Giants captain may not have been his own decision, according to recent reports. The franchise publicly said he asked to step down, but newer claims suggest management chose to remove him after two underwhelming IPL seasons.
An expensive signing who struggled
LSG, owned by Sanjiv Goenka, signed Pant for a record INR 27 crore at the 2025 mega auction, making him the costliest player in IPL history at that point, and made him captain. Under him the team finished seventh and then 10th.
His own batting also fell short. Over 26 innings across the two campaigns he made 581 runs at an average of 26.41 and a strike rate of 135.74, with two fifties and one hundred.
The official statement
The IPL 2026 season ended on May 31. Two days before the final, LSG announced that Pant had decided to leave the captaincy. The club said he had approached it with the request, that it had accepted respectfully, and that it was thankful for what he brought as leader. It added that its focus was on rebuilding and restructuring.
Delhi link and the new claims
Separate reports have connected Pant with a return to Delhi Capitals, the team he played for across eight IPL seasons, possibly in a trade that would send Kuldeep Yadav to Lucknow along with a significant salary adjustment.
The latest claims say LSG management removed him instead, and that the 28-year-old has grown disillusioned and feels undervalued. A source cited in one report questioned the speed of the decision straight after the season, and said Pant seemed keen to move on from a franchise where he no longer felt valued.
