India wicketkeeper and Delhi Capitals captain Rishabh Pant sent shockwaves among his fans and franchise with a mysterious social media post ahead of the mega auction for the Indian Premier League. Taking to X, Pant asked if he went under the hammer, how much money would he fetch or will he remain unsold. Pant wrote, "If go to the auction. Will I be sold or not and for how much?"
The left-handed attacking batter, who was once ruled out from competing in the entire 2023 season due to a horrific car crash, returned to competitive cricket earlier this year in IPL 2024. He eventually won the ICC T20 World Cup with Rohit Sharma-led side before making a comeback to the ODI and Test squads.
After the BCCI published its IPL Player Regulations a month back, Delhi Capitals co-owner Parth Jindal was clear on what his future at the franchise looked like with Pant, declaring that he will definitely be retained.
"Yes, we definitely have to retain. We have some very good players in our team. The rules have come out now, so after discussing with GMR and our director of cricket, Sourav Ganguly, decisions will be made. Rishabh Pant will definitely be retained," Jindal told IANS earlier this month.
"We also have Axar Patel, who is excellent, Tristan Stubbs, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Kuldeep Yadav, Abishek Porel, Mukesh Kumar, and Khaleel Ahmed, all very good players in our team. We'll see what happens in the auction. But first, as per the rule, we can retain six players. After discussions, we will proceed with the auction and see what happens," he added.
Earlier, Pant had already taken a dig at a social media user who claimed his possible link-up with Royal Challengers Bengaluru ahead of the IPL mega auction. But he reacted strongly to the post and termed it "fake news".
The IPL teams can retain up to six players of the existing team. It can be either through retention or through the Right to Match (RTM). The six retentions/ RTM's can have at the most five capped players (Indian & Overseas) and at the most two uncapped players.
For IPL 2025, the auction purse for the franchises has been set at Rs 120 crore. This overall salary cap includes the auction purse, incremental performance pay, and match fees. In 2024, the total salary cap was Rs 110 cr (auction purse + incremental performance pay), Rs 146 cr in 2025, Rs 151 cr in 2026, and Rs 157 cr in 2027.
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