‘Making Rishabh Pant IPL's costliest buy: LSG owner Sanjiv Goenka reveals why Parth Jindal is a fanatical supporter’

Just 20 minutes into the IPL auction 2025, history was made as Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant shattered records. Surpassing Yuvraj Singh's ₹16 crore mark set in 2015, the two Indian cricketers clinched monumental deals in a whirlwind of bidding in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Punjab Kings secured Iyer for a staggering ₹26 crore, making him the most expensive player in IPL history, surpassing Mitchell Starc's ₹24.75 crore contract with KKR last year. However, Iyer's glory was short-lived as Lucknow Super Giants swooped in with a jaw-dropping ₹27 crore bid for Rishabh Pant, setting a new milestone in IPL auction history within just 11 minutes.

Less than three weeks since that record-breaking IPL auction, LSG owner Sanjiv Goenka revealed the "science" behind his calculated bid for Pant. Goenka said he knew DC co-owner Parth Jindal "was crazy" for Pant and would go any length to bring him back so he had to place an amount that DC can't match despite using their Right To Match option.

"There was science behind going at 27 Cr for Rishabh Pant. Delhi went at 26.5 Cr for Shreyas Iyer. So, then my feeling was, ‘Parth Jindal is so crazy for Rishabh Pant, he would go one up at the IPL Auction.’ So, the idea was to go two up from Parth, or even three up, and that is where he would stop. For Rishabh, we had calculated three scenarios, and in all of them, he was very important to us," Goenka told Ranveer Allahbadia.

LSG needed a captain after they decided to let KL Rahul go. Goenka said they had kept about ₹25 to 27 crore for Pant and when the bidding stopped at ₹22 crore and DC raised the paddle to use their RTM card, Goenka knew they would have to place a bid beyond ₹26 crore as DC had gone till length for Shreyas Iyer a few minutes ago.

“We knew we were going to get him, and we had kept between 25 and 27 crores for him in all our planning. So, when the bidding stopped for Rishabh at 21-22 Cr, DC did not waste even a second to use RTM for him. So that means they were willing to go to the full extent that we have to take Rishabh," The owner of the RPSG group said.

Goenka said the main reason for going all out for Pant was to get an Indian anchor on board.

"However, whatever the circumstances were, they did not retain him, or Rishabh was not willing to be retained. It is not right for me to discuss that or comment on it, but they were keen. If you look at Parth’s reaction, it is more like the deal is done. Looking at all this, we thought 27 Cr was a safe bid. Had Rishabh not come to us, LSG would have missed an Indian anchor around whom the entire team is built.”