Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and Delhi Capitals (DC) have formally completed the high-profile trade of Rishabh Pant and Kuldeep Yadav, with Rishabh Pant going back to DC while Kuldeep Yadav finds his home at LSG.
As reported by ESPN Cricinfo a few days ago, Rishabh Pant will return to DC, where he played nine seasons of IPL cricket from 2016 to 2024. He had been signed by LSG at the auction before IPL 2025 for INR 27 crore, which is still an IPL record as we speak. But now, Pant will go to DC for a revised fee of INR 15 crore. Kuldeep, meanwhile, will move to LSG for his current fee of INR 13.50 crore.
Details of the deal involving Rishabh Pant and Kuldeep Yadav
If we go into the details of this transfer, we will find that the difference between Rishabh Pant’s previous fee and Kuldeep Yadav’s fee will leave LSG with an extra 13.50 crore (INR 27 crore minus 13.50 crore) in their purse for the next auction, while DC will have INR 1.50 crore deducted from their purse. LSG has gained more from this trade than DC, as the figures that are being showcased don’t lie.
Rishabh Pant has become the second big name, after Ravindra Jadeja, to take a pay cut as part of a trade in recent times. Ahead of IPL 2026, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) made one of the biggest trades in IPL history when they swapped Jadeja and Sam Curran for Sanju Samson with the Rajasthan Royals (RR). In 2022, CSK had retained Jadeja for INR 18 crore, but RR signed him after offering a salary of INR 14 crore.
Rishabh Pant & Kuldeep Yadav’s performance in IPL 2026
Both Kuldeep Yadav and Rishabh Pant had a difficult campaign for their respective sides in IPL 2026. Pant, who led LSG, scored 312 runs with a best of 68 not out in 13 innings, scoring at a strike rate of 138.05 as his team finished bottom of the table with just four wins from 14 games.
Two days before the IPL 2026 final, Pant told LSG that he was going to step down as captain. The development followed LSG team director Tom Moody suggesting immediately after the team’s last match of the season that the franchise was looking to reset the leadership in the wake of finishing seventh in 2024 and 2025 and then last in 2026.
DC finished in sixth place in IPL 2026, and Kuldeep, who returned one three-wicket haul, had just 10 wickets from 11 bowling innings in which he sent down 37 overs. He was expensive too, going at 10.29.
Overall, though, Kuldeep had been an important performer for DC, picking up 72 wickets in 65 games at an economy rate of 8.24 since joining them in 2022.
Who does this deal benefit more?Â
Taking everything into consideration, the monetary part of it and the requirements of the side, one feels that LSG has benefited and has got the better of the deal than DC. For starters, they have more money in their kitty, so nothing has been deducted from their purse, and they can buy more players if they wish to. For DC, their purse will be deducted a little bit.
But more than that, the requirements of the team matter. LSG desperately needed a proper spinner and a gun, as the players they had for spin were, at best, average. So, getting Kuldeep into the mix is huge, and it solves a lot of problems. For DC, they have picked Pant, and it’s a homecoming for him, no doubt. But the question is, where does he fit in? The middle order was doing okay, and now they have to change it again. Plus, do DC have a proper replacement for Kuldeep, and can they buy him? So, on face value, LSG seems to be the gainer.
But this does not guarantee anything like LSG will do better than DC next season. It will depend on how they perform on the field. But looking at it from outside, it seems LSG has got the better of DC in this trade, with the Capitals scratching their heads on fitting in Pant in the middle order somewhere.
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