Veteran commentator Aakash Chopra has said that Rishabh Pant said that money was not the criterion behind him not being retained by the Delhi Capitals (DC) showing that ‘something else was cooking’ in the franchise. He also added that Pant’s earlier social media post about his potential auction price also showed that something was a miss.
Reflecting on Pant’s response in a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra,’ he said, “I saw a video where Sunil Gavaskar said that negotiations happen these days and a few players have got more than ₹18 crore, like Heinrich Klaasen got ₹23 crore and Virat Kohli got ₹21 crore. So maybe Rishabh wanted more and he didn’t get as much, and that’s why he is not with Delhi now but Delhi will want to keep him with them and will use the RTM card because they also need a captain.”
“This was Sunny bhai’s thought process. He said that and Rishabh Pant quickly responded that money had nothing to do with it, which basically tells us that something else was cooking there. Rishabh Pant actually started this. He had tweeted that if he goes to the auction, will he be sold, and for how much if he gets sold. Why would you ask that question, Rishabh? That was a hint that all is not well in Delhi’s heavenly abode,” Chopra further added.
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In the same video, Aakash Chopra also stated that Rishabh Pant might have opted to go into the auction if he wasn’t assured the Delhi Capitals’ captaincy in IPL 2025 as well.
“I had also heard that the money negotiation was settled but then what happened? There are only two things that could have happened. One is Rishabh Pant might have been told that they would keep him but not make him their captain or at least they can’t guarantee him that he would be their captain. In such a scenario, Rishabh might have said no when asked if he would want to stay,” he said.
“If this wasn’t the reason, the second thing could be that he might have asked for his own support staff because the support staff was changing. In such a scenario, Rishabh Pant might have asked for three or four people in his support staff team, and that it wouldn’t work out if they didn’t do that,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
