Rishabh Pant not in DC's list of retained players: Report

Rishabh Pant can feature for a new side in the 2025 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) as he isn’t a part of the list of players retained by Delhi Capitals (DC) ahead of the mega-auction. 

As reported by Times of India, DC have finalized Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Tristan Stubbs and Abishek Porel (uncapped) as their four retained players. 

The amount for each player isn’t revealed yet but these retentions will give DC two right-to-match (RTM) cards in the auction if they want to draft a player back into their squad. 

Pant made his IPL debut for Delhi (then Delhi Daredevils) in 2016 and has been with the franchise ever since. He has been their captain since 2021, leading the team to the playoffs once. 

According to TOI, DC wanted to retain Pant, but the new management that came in after the end of Ricky Ponting’s seven-year stint as head coach didn’t want to proceed with him as captain. 

"Rishabh Pant wanted captaincy, wanted to be involved with regards to appointment of coaches and support staff but plenty in the DC set-up are not convinced about his T20 game. It wasn't that they wanted to let him go but they were clear that they didn't see him leading the side. And that decision wasn't an overnight one," a source told. 

With Pant’s departure, the new DC management, which will be headed by former Indian cricketers Hemag Badani and Venugopal Rao will be looking for a new captain in mega-auction. Among the retained players, only Axar Patel has captaincy experience, that too of only one game when he filled up for Pant’s absence in the 2024 season. 

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