Delhi Capitals co-owner Parth Jindal finally spoke up on Tuesday, revealing why Rishabh Pant chose to leave the franchise. Even though Pant chose to leave, Delhi used their Right-To-Match card during the IPL 2025 auction in Jeddah on Sunday but failed to match Lucknow Super Giants’ bid of INR 27 crore.
Speaking to RevSportz, Jindal shared that after last IPL season, the management gave Pant “honest feedback” regarding his performances and told him that they did not expect him to do that. However Pant didn’t take it properly and made the “emotional call” to the franchise to leave.
“Not retaining Pant was not about ownership. It was a very collective decision. We had a lot of discussions with Rishabh. There were things that were expected of Rishabh, which we did not get in the last or in the previous seasons. We gave him an honest feedback. But the feedback was not taken as the way we expected it to be taken. He then took an emotional call,” Jindal explained.
Also Read: Rishabh Pant Addresses Sunil Gavaskar’s Claim About Delhi Capitals Exit and Retention Fee
Jindal also revealed that he and co-owner Kiran Kumar Grandhi had tried to convince Pant to stay with the team but the India batter had made up his mind.
According to the managing director of JSW Cement, although he had told Pant that they would not pursue him in the auction, emotions led him to try and pick him up. But the price was too high.
“He has also grown in this franchise, but what happened is not what I’m going to get into. It was a very prolonged long discussion and after that Pant decided not to stay. Me and Kiran tried made all efforts to keep him, but he decided to go in a different direction. I told Pant that we won’t go after him in the auction, but my heart took over and we tried picking him up. But the price was too high,” Jindal said.
Pant was eventually auctioned at INR 27 crores to Lucknow Super Giants. Initially, earlier in the day, Shreyas Iyer has been sold for INR 26.75 crore to Punjab Kings, setting a new highest record surpassing Mitchell Starc of INR 24.75 crore from last season. LSG also roped in 19 other players for this mega-auction that comes to an INR 68.90 crore.
