Kingmaker IPL finds a new muse in Rishabh Pant: Will LSG's big-money punt pay off?
Rishabh Pant became the apple of the eye for Lucknow Super Giants as they made an offer that Delhi Capitals were forced to refuse, Rs 27 crore, the highest for a player for a season in IPL history at the mega auction. Pant has a big responsibility to now justify that price tag as LSG aim for title.
IPL Auction 2025: 'Doosron ki madad karne se pehle, kripya apni kursi ki peti thik se baandh lijiye (Please tighten your seat belts before offering help to others)' is a common in-flight announcement, which frankly a frequent traveller must have been bored of by now yet doesn't have any other option but to put up with it. The announcement is simple but has a deep meaning to it if you give it a little more thought. The in-flight announcements always focus on self first, whether it's seat belts or oxygen masks, basically in emergencies. They also know that it's only you who will have to help themselves in an emergency, and no one else will come to your rescue.
But isn't contrary to what we have been told and taught in the bildungsroman? 'Selfishness' is always seen as a negative trait, something you have to stay away from. Always be there for others, always keep others ahead of you, but in emergencies, it's about thinking about yourself every time. It also reflects the changing times and life in general in the current day and age. And since cricket reflects life, this thought process expands to cricket as well. Cricket is a team game and 'team first' is the motto for any and every player.
Although the antonym 'selflessness' has become an overused and abused term in the past 18 months or so in Indian cricket, the traditional definition and the science behind it still remain very much applicable to the sport. If a player plays a bit slow or goes against the grain, the fans are quick to jump to conclusions and label the player 'selfish', or 'playing for himself'. It may be true for one or two odd occasions here or there, but mostly, cricket players and cricketers grow up with the 'team-first attitude.'
Since they can't really do it on the field, the IPL has given themselves a chance to care for themselves, and think about themselves first off it, more so as the tournament progresses into an adult from its teens. The Rs 120 crore purse, a sizeable jump from the Rs 100 crore purse from last year has its obvious temptation for the players to test their market value and a possibility of getting more than what's offered in retention.
Like any job switch, salary is one of the most important reasons for the change. Even if the candidate says it's not, or the player suggests that money wasn't the reason, you know he/she is lying. Only in a very few cases, the money is not important for the change but in others, it is probably the primary one. And these days, even if there's one opportunity that a player sees for change, they are not afraid to switch. 'Loyalty' is another misunderstood term when it comes to IPL and franchise sport.
Loyalty mostly matters to the fans, of the players and to a few of the teams as well. Most diehard fans of the teams are not bothered if a particular player leave the franchise after spending most of their career because they are aware that these decisions are mutual most times and since there are lakhs and crores of rupees at stake, it wouldn't have been taken on a five-minute call.
That 'a player isn't loyal' narrative born out of fans' mind, who only have one example to give, Virat Kohli. But if only one player has played for the same team in 18 years of IPL, doesn't it suggest where the loyalties for a player lie? A better environment, less pressure, freedom - all these factors are but more money is always the given. A normal corporate employee wouldn't think twice before shifting for a 15-20 per cent salary hike, here we are talking about 50-60 per cent hikes, that too in crores. If they don't change, that will be a problem. Ask Kolkata Knight Riders what loyalty cost them, no disrespect to Venkatesh Iyer. It is big punt they have put on him and the defending champions will hope that Iyer plays with the reaffirmation of how much KKR wanted him back rather than the pressure of the price tag (Rs 23.75 crore.)
Hence, you saw the likes of Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, Arshdeep Singh and KL Rahul, four marquee Indian players among others, three of them being captains of their respective franchises choosing to put their names up for auction rather than getting retained was probably the watershed moment for the IPL.
Pant ended up being the most expensive player in the cash-rich league's history, Shreyas Iyer got Rs14.5 crore more than his previous salary at the Kolkata Knight Riders while Arshdeep got what he deserved, the top retention bracket, Rs18 crore, which Punjab refused to give him pre-auction but had to give him eventually. And Rahul, always an interesting name since he hasn't been the T20 player everyone hoped and wished for suffered a pay cut from Rs 17 to 14 crore, but it wasn't as huge and maybe this reality check can revitalise his IPL career, something the Delhi Capitals would love to see.
It's interesting that we talk about Rahul in that regard that he hasn't been able to play to his full potential in T20 cricket in the past half a decade and this statement stands true for Rishabh Pant as well, who may have been splashed with a lot of cash but now will have the pressure to prove Sanjiv Goenka, Zaheer Khan, Justin Langer and prove them right and justify their wager on him.
When Pant arrived onto the scene, the unabashed and unapologetic nature of his cricket made him a perfect fit for white-ball cricket and especially T20 cricket. However, his stats in T20 international cricket suggest anything but that. A strike rate of 127 and an average of 23 after playing 76 games, especially with game moving on rapidly in the last couple of years, doesn't give a good look on the player as well as the team management who kept providing him chances on the hope that Pant will be able to recreate his exploits in Test cricket in the T20Is too.
IPL has certainly been better for Pant with strike rate improving to 148 and average to 35. From being an investment as a teenager after the Under-19 World Cup in 2016 for just Rs 1.9 crore to being multiplied four times and n number of times to now standing at Rs 27 crore, Pant's value has come a long way but if auctions have told us anything, big paycheques have been inversely proportional to the performances, at least in that very year.
There have been enough and more examples, whether it was Ben Stokes after the 2018 mega auction or Chris Morris in 2021, being the highest-priced player in an IPL auction until that point or Mitchell Starc last year, who till the playoffs had become a liability for KKR rather than an asset before justifying his price tag in the knockouts as his Australian mindset came to the fore. But KKR almost playing with 10 men in the league stage and having to carry him through 14 games while hoping that he delivers at the business end of the tournament, tells you how extraordinary that team was performing last year.
It was in 2022 when Pant had mentioned that he would like to open in T20 cricket. He batted at 4 for the Delhi Capitals in IPL 2024 on return and to his credit, did well. However, come the T20 World Cup, the promotion to No 3 didn't work as apart from one knock, the tournament was largely below-par. Sanju Samson has made that T20I wicketkeeper slot his own for now and Pant will have to fight for it. However, Lucknow owner Sanjiv Goenka wouldn't want another keeper-captain using the IPL as a stepping stone to win back his place in the Indian side.
After the Rahul debacle and the public scolding the former LSG captain had to face last year, Goenka going hard for Pant - so much so that he increased the bid by Rs 6.25 crore through the new RTM rule - was strange but it was more hope than anything else that he would fire and bring better results. Because emotions have no longer a place in franchise cricket, as soon as the players, the fans, the franchises and all the stakeholders get privy to this fact, the better. Having paid a moolah to Pant, anything less than a 500-run season and a playoff spot for Lucknow wouldn't be what Goenka and Co would want having gone in with single-most objective to acquire Pant without caring about the price, literally.
Rs 27 crore is a lot! More than 22 per cent of the whole purse available to the club, a significant rise from the last mega auction in 2022. In terms of value of the players to the league, from MS Dhoni getting sold for $1.5m, the Pant contract is valued at $3.2m, so it has only doubled. When you compare it with the value of the league, which has grown by multiple 1000 per cent taking into account the value of the new teams and the broadcasting deal. So from this perspective, the players aren't getting a lot but when you look at the likes of PSL, BBL, the Hundred and other franchise tournaments, the salaries are nowhere close to what is being flashed in the IPL.
Hence, you wonder if in the coming years, someone like Yashasvi Jaiswal or a Jasprit Bumrah, who are at the top of their game would want to test their market value and how far they can go. Rs 30 crore, 35 crore? Or even more, who knows? But for Pant, this is now. The pressure of the price tag will be there but he wanted that amount, he wanted to get his market value and now will have to perform because franchises are like well-oiled machines, if a part is not working or getting redundant, it gets removed, no questions asked.