Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra has added that Rishabh Pant has virtually become the new nawab of Lucknow after being appointed as the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) captain for IPL 2025 as well. He also shared that the former Delhi Capitals (DC) captain had a say in his new franchise’s auction picks as well. Notably, LSG bought Rishabh Pant for ₹27 crore at the IPL 2025 auction as well.
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In a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra’, he said, “Muskuraiye. Aap sirf Lucknow mein nahin, aap Lucknow ke naye nawab hain (You are not only in Lucknow, you are Lucknow’s new nawab). You will sit on that throne now. Very few people know that Rishabh Pant has an extremely old relationship with Lucknow. This franchise’s dynamics are very interesting because Zaheer Khan, Rishabh Pant and Sanjiv Goenka, the RPSG group chairman, are all here. Sanjiv Goenka is the owner and he has multiple teams. He has Durban Super Giants, had Rising Pune Super Giants, then he came to Lucknow Super Giants, and he also has a football team. So they know the business of sport.”
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“He has had excellent captains under him. He likes making wicketkeeper-batter captains. MS Dhoni – RPSG, KL Rahul before this, and now Rishabh Pant. Rishabh had a lot of input in the team that was built, which is good. Rishabh spoke about what he wants to create here and the owner and Rishabh are on the same page,” Chopra further shared.
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Aakash Chopra also stated that Rishabh Pant will have new challenges with the new team. He also added that most Indian Prime Ministers have gone through the UP route as well, which might be a good opportunity for Pant in his quest to become Team India captain as well.
“What will be the challenges? It’s an all-Indian bowling attack. It’s promising but entirely Indian. They have three left-handers in the middle and all of them are mighty. Left is right and then all three at the top are right-handers. So it will be interesting to see who would open and who would bat where,” Aakash Chopra concluded.