Rishabh Pant on Tuesday dismissed Sunil Gavaskar’s suggestion that he left the Delhi Capitals due to a disagreement over his retention fee ahead of the IPL mega auction.
Pant, who captained Delhi Capitals last season after recovering from a serious car accident, is one of the high-profile players not retained by his franchise. He is expected to be one of the most sought-after players during the upcoming IPL auction in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on November 24 and 25.
“My retention wasn’t about the money, that’s for sure,” Pant responded on X, after seeing a video of Gavaskar discussing the auction dynamics.
Gavaskar had speculated that while Delhi Capitals might look to bring Pant back, there could have been a disagreement over the retention fee. He mentioned that sometimes players and franchises have discussions over the expected fees during the retention process.
“The auction dynamics are completely different; we don’t really know how it will go. But I feel Delhi would definitely want Rishabh Pant back,” Gavaskar said during a conversation on Star Sports. He added, “There could have been a disagreement over the fees during the retention phase, especially when some players who were retained seem to have gone for higher fees than expected.”
Gavaskar also noted that if Pant isn’t part of the squad, Delhi would need to find a new captain.
Pant, along with former captains Shreyas Iyer (Kolkata Knight Riders) and KL Rahul (Lucknow Super Giants), has been listed at a base price of Rs 2 crore in the marquee Indian players’ category for the auction.
Pant has been with Delhi since his IPL debut in 2016, amassing 3,284 runs in 111 matches at an average of 35.31, including one century and 18 fifties.
Leave a Reply