Former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra has noted that Rishabh Pant has taken a massive pay cut in his trade move from Lucknow Super Giants to Delhi Capitals. Pant was bought for a massive amount of INR 27 crore in IPL 2025 mega auction and he has moved to Delhi Capitals for INR 15 crore.
The wicket-keeper bat had become the most expensive player in IPL auction history after LSG had broken the bank for him.
On the other hand, in a trade deal, which was confirmed on Tuesday, Kuldeep Yadav will move to Lucknow Super Giants for INR 13.5 crore.
“If you were thinking about pay cuts, layoffs, and limited job opportunities in your life, just think about Rishabh Pant. A guy was earning ₹27 crore and will earn only 15 now. One gets slightly surprised while saying only 15, but only 15 because he was at ₹27 crore. It means a pay cut of ₹12 crore. People are not able to earn as much in their entire life,” Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube channel.
The renowned commentator added that the trade deal is more beneficial for LSG as they were not able to finalise Pant’s batting position.
“I genuinely feel that Lucknow has benefited more. Their batting order wasn’t getting settled because all four of their overseas players were batters, and then among the Indian batters, they had Rishabh Pant, Ayush Badoni, and Mukul Choudhary. So you weren’t able to bat him before No. 5, and if they tried to bat him before No. 5, an overseas batter had to go down, and the combination was not getting set,” he observed.
The former Delhi cricketer highlighted that Pant’s performances as either a captain or a batter were not satisfactory.
“If I look at it from that perspective, they were not losing much by releasing him. The performance over the last two years hasn’t been good either. He was made the captain with the expectation that the team would do well. If both years didn’t go well, as a batter, you don’t miss, and as a captain, there is nothing to write home about,” Chopra elaborated.
Pant scored 312 runs in 14 matches of IPL 2026 at an average of 28.36 and a strike rate of 138.05, whereas he could only manage 269 runs in IPL 2025 while leading LSG.
