
Rishabh Pant was named the Lucknow Super Giants captain on Monday, January 19. The highest-paid star in the IPL history, Pant, will be the second captain of the Lucknow franchise, filling in the shoes of KL Rahul.?
Rahul had led the Super Giants in the first three seasons since the franchise came into existence in 2022 and took them into the playoffs in his first two attempts.
During an interaction on Star Sports, Pant was unveiled as captain with LSG owner Sanjiv Goenka also present. "Thank you to the LSG family for showing the faith in me. I will give my 200% and that's my commitment to you. I will try whatever is in my power to repay the faith you have shown. Looking forward to have a new beginning with new energy and just have a blast out there, and have lots of fun," Pant said in the interaction.
Meanwhile, he also revealed a tension he had during the IPL 2025 mega auction. Pant has revealed that he was not keen to go to the Punjab team and was relieved when they picked Shreyas Iyer for Rs 26.75 crore. PBKS had the highest purse and with Ricky Ponting being the head coach of the franchise, it was predicted that Pant could go to PBKS. Notably, both Pant and Ponting had worked with each other in the Delhi Capitals for six seasons from 2018, excluding the 2023 season when Pant was out due to his horrific accident.
During the auction, he revealed his tension. "From inside, I had only one tension. That was Punjab. Their budget was so high that if you wanted, you could not do anything. They had Rs. 112 crore, and the second highest was Rs. 82 crore. When Shreyas joined Punjab, I was relieved that I could join LSG now," Pant said.
The wicket-keeper batter understands that this is a new team that he will lead, but the ideology remains the same. "Yes this is a new team and a new set-up but my ideology of captaining a side doesn't change," Pant said. "But as a cricketer, you are [always] trying to add to your captaincy. If you give confidence and trust in a player, he will do things you can't even imagine. That's the ideology we will try to have. We will give them trust, clear communication and lay out what role we have for them," he said.