IPL 2025: Rishabh Pant set to be appointed as the captain of Lucknow Super Giants

Elite Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant is set to be named as the new captain of the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) ahead of the 2025 edition of the IPL. The 27-year-old became the most expensive player in the history of the cash-rich T20 league after the Lucknow-based team purchased him in the 2025 Mega-Auction for a massive sum of 27 crore Indian rupees. 

KL Rahul handled the leadership duties of the franchise in their first 3 seasons in the tournament i.e 2022, 2023, and 2024 editions of the Indian Premier League. Rahul led them to back-to-back playoff finishes in 2022 and 2023 but the 2024 edition of the cash-rich T20 league proved to be a disastrous one for Lucknow and they finished at the seventh position in the overall standings. 

For Pant, this will be his second franchise where he become the captain, having led the Delhi Capitals (DC) since 2021. But, it was the captaincy duties that turned to be the deciding factor in the 27-year-old's decision to head into the Mega-Auction after failing to reach an appropriate decision with the Capitals, who wanted to retain the Wicketkeeper batsman but were not keen on letting him handle the leadership duties again. 

Ahead of the Mega-Auction, LSG had retained five players: Ravi Bishnoi, Mohsin Khan, Mayank Yadav, Nicholas Pooran and Ayush Badoni. 

However, the franchise were on the lookout for an Indian captain who could replace Rahul in the team. Pant along with former KKR skipper Shreyas Iyer were the main targets for the Lucknow-based team and at the auction, they fought hard to secure the services of Iyer but were then outbid by the Punjab Kings (PBKS). 

Then as soon as Pant's name popped up, Lucknow went all out for him, winning a fierce bidding-battle versus the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) to bag Rishabh at the price tag of 20.75 crore Indian Rupees. However, Delhi Capitals (DC) who had the Right-To-Match-Card available for Pant, decided to execute it but LSG placed an unbelievable bid of 27 crore Indian Rupees which was more than enough for them to secure the services of Rishabh Pant.

27-year-old Rishabh Pant, who represented the team of Delhi Capitals (DC) since 2016, took over the leadership duties of the franchise in IPL 2021 and was the skipper in 2022 and 2024 but missed the 2023 edition of the tournament after getting injured in a life-threatning car accident in December of 2022.

The former DC captain will have the support of overseas T20 specialists David Miller, Nicholas Pooran, Aiden Markram and Mitchell Marsh and Indian pace bowling duo of Avesh Khan & Akash Deep in the fully changed Lucknow Super Giants squad. 

The likes of Markram, Miller and Pooran were apparently considered for the captaincy role but the LSG team management decided to go ahead with Rishabh. 

The 27-year-old will also be working closely with Australian legend and the head coach of the franchise Justin Langer and newly appointed mentor, Zaheer Khan. It remains to be seen how well the franchise performs under the captaincy of Rishabh Pant and whether he can lead them to their IPL title victory or not is going to be an interesting thing to watch.

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