DC co-owner's farewell message to 'younger brother' Rishabh Pant after IPL auction: 'I hope one day we can reunite...'
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For almost ten years, Delhi Capitals' name has been synonymous with wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant. However, as the saying goes, 'all good things come to an end', Rishabh Pant's association with the franchise has also ended as the 27-year-old was picked by Lucknow Super Giants in the mega auction which was held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Delhi Capitals co-owner Parth Jindal has now penned a heartfelt post for Pant, calling him his "younger brother."
Delhi Capitals did try their best to get Rishabh Pant as the franchise did exercise the option of right-to-match card. However, once Lucknow Super Giants raised their bid to INR 27 crore, the Delhi-based franchise pulled out and Pant slipped out of their grasp.
As expected, Parth Jindal is now emotional, considering Pant who has been with Delhi since 2016, is going to be no longer associated with the team.
"To Rishabh @RishabhPant17 you are and will always remain my younger brother - from the bottom of my heart I love you and I have tried everything to make sure you are happy and have treated you like my family. I am very sad to see you go and I am very emotional about it. You will always be in DC and I hope one day we can reunite," Parth Jindal wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
"Thank you for everything Rishabh and remember that we will always love you - go well champ, the world is at your feet. Best wishes from all of us at @DelhiCapitals - other than when you play DC I will be cheering and hoping for the best for you," he added.
Pant eventually played 111 matches for Delhi Capitals, scoring 3284 runs at an average of 35.31 and strike rate of 148.93. The left-handed batter led the franchise from 2021.
Rishabh Pant was always in LSG's plans
Speaking to Cricbuzz about picking Rishabh Pant for INR 27 crore, Lucknow Super Giants owner Sanjiv Goenka revealed that Rishabh Pant was always a part of their plans.
"We had structured the auction in a certain way and Pant was an integral part of our plans. We had done some budgeting for him. Look we could not get Bhuvneshwar Kumar and we went for Akash Deep," said Sanjiv Goenka.
"We wanted two Indian fast bowlers and we spent INR 9.75 crore on Avesh and INR 8 crore on Akash Deep. This was not about one individual player. It was not about egos. Did we want to have the most expensive player? No. At the end of the day this does not mean very much to the franchise. Eventually it is about performance and how the team balance looks," he added.
When asked about raising the bid to INR 27 crore, Sanjiv Goenka said, "We had a sense that Delhi Capitals will try to exercise RTM. They went up to INR 26.50 crore for Shreyas Iyer and Punjab got him at INR 26.75. That was the budget they had for their No. 1 player. I felt that they will go up to INR 26.75 for Pant too. If I wanted Rishabh, it had to be INR 27 crore."
Rishabh Pant is now the costliest buy in the history of the IPL. Shreyas Iyer is the second-biggest buy after he was acquired by Punjab Kings for a whopping sum of INR 26.75 crore.
