Former Delhi Capitals skipper Rishabh Pant has opened up on his exit from the franchise for the first time since the retention announcement. Pant, who was part of the Capitals side for seven years and led the franchise in three seasons, was one of the high-profile names released ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auction and now is touted to be probably the most expensive purchases in the tournament history.
"My retention wasn’t about the money for sure that I can say," Pant said on X (previously Twitter) in response to Star Sports' Delhi Capitals preview ahead of the auction where Sunil Gavaskar suggested that there might be a disagreement between the two entities over retention amount.
"The auction dynamics are completely different, so we don't know how it will go. But what I feel is Delhi would certainly want Rishabh Pant back in their squad," Gavaskar on whether the Capitals would want to buy Pant back.
"Sometimes when the player is to be retained, there is talk between the franchise and the player about the fees, that are expected. As you can see some of the players, who have been retained by their franchise, have gone for more than say what the number one retention fee deduction would be.
"Maybe there was some disagreement over there. But my feeling is that Delhi definitely would want Rishabh Pant back because they need a captain as well," Gavaskar added before Pant denied the speculation. A PTI report suggested that Pant wasn't on the same page with the new team management comprising head coach Hemang Badani and Y Venugopal Rao as the Director of Cricket.
Gavaskar referred to the likes of Heinrich Klaasen (INR 23 crore), Virat Kohli (INR 21 crore), and Nicholas Pooran (INR 21 crore), who have been retained by Sunrisers Hyderabad, RCB, and Lucknow Super Giants for a little more than the first retention bracket of INR 18 crore.
The Capitals retained Axar Patel as their top retention for INR 16.5 crore with Kuldeep Yadav getting the second retention for INR 13.25 crore and Tristan Stubbs being the third one for INR 10 crore. Abishek Porel at INR 4 crore was the fourth one as the one of the two uncapped retentions.
