Delhi Capitals—one of the most mercurial teams in IPL—made headlines recently by ending their association with head coach Ricky Ponting. That has thrown up a question now being asked by fans: what prevents the sacking of their captain Rishabh Pant, too?. These rumours only picked up more when Pant posted his latest Instagram, really firing up the board with discussions about his future with the franchise.
He posted a collage on social media featuring himself with iconic actor Rajnikanth. But it was Pant’s attire and posture, fashioned similarly to Rajnikanth’s famous style, that caught everyone’s attention. Pant posted a photo of him sitting with his right leg crossed over the left in formal clothing, just like Rajnikanth is famously known to do, and captioned the post “Thalaiva,” a term that means “leader” in Tamil and one which Rajnikanth’s fans use as a title for him.
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The use of “Thalaiva” in Pant’s post has the fans drawing parallels to MS Dhoni, the legendary captain of the Chennai Super Kings, who is lovingly called “Thala” by CSK supporters. This thus leads to speculation that Pant might be placed as a potential heir to Dhoni, especially with rumours milling around about Dhoni possibly retiring from the IPL.
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It is amidst all this social media frenzy that reports suggest while DC’s Director of Cricket, Sourav Ganguly is keen on retaining Pant as captain, not everyone in the franchise’s higher management shares the same view.
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Notwithstanding these uncertainties, Pant’s best season for DC remains 2018, where he amassed 684 runs in 14 matches. But all his performances came down sliding since then, with his next-best season arriving in 2019, where he scored 488 runs in 16 games. With all the talks ongoing, everyone is waiting to see what lies ahead for this young cricketer.
