Former India opener Aakash Chopra has opened up on the debate surrounding Rishabh Pant entering the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction. Rishabh Pant is one of the biggest names to enter the IPL 2025 mega auction after being released by Delhi Capitals (DC). On Pant’s release, former India captain Sunil Gavaskar labelled salary as the main reason behind the player’s exit from the franchise. However, in an indirect response to Gavaskar, Pant suggested that money had nothing to do with him entering the auction.
However, Chopra questioned Pant’s remarks by highlighting hid old tweet, where he had posted asking the fans, “If go to the auction. will I be sold or not and for how much?”.
“I saw a video where Sunil Gavaskar said that negotiations happen these days and a few players have got more than Rs 18 crore, like Heinrich Klaasen got Rs 23 crore and Virat Kohli got Rs 21 crore. So maybe Rishabh wanted more and he didn’t get as much, and that’s why he is not with Delhi now but Delhi will want to keep him with them and will use the RTM card because they also need a captain,” Chopra said in a video on his YouTube channel.
“This was Sunny bhai’s thought process. He said that and Rishabh Pant quickly responded that money had nothing to do with it, which basically tells us that something else was cooking there. Rishabh Pant actually started this. He had tweeted that if he goes to the auction, will he be sold, and for how much if he gets sold. Why would you ask that question, Rishabh? That was a hint that all is not well in Delhi’s heavenly abode.”
Chopra also shared his views on DC releasing Pant, dissecting two possible reasons. He felt that either DC didn’t want to retain him as captain or the player might have asked to pick his own support staff.
“I had also heard that the money negotiation was settled but then what happened? There are only two things that could have happened. One is Rishabh Pant might have been told that they would keep him but not make him their captain or at least they can’t guarantee him that he would be their captain. In such a scenario, Rishabh might have said no when asked if he would want to stay,” he added.
“If this wasn’t the reason, the second thing could be that he might have asked for his own support staff because the support staff was changing. In such a scenario, Rishabh Pant might have asked for three or four people in his support staff team, and that it wouldn’t work out if they didn’t do that.”
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