Pant returns to Delhi Capitals as Kuldeep heads to Lucknow in a landmark IPL trade
Delhi Capitals and Lucknow Super Giants have swapped Rishabh Pant and Kuldeep Yadav, bringing Pant back to the franchise where he made his name ahead of IPL 2027.
Jun 25, 2026
Rishabh Pant is going back to where his IPL career took off. Delhi Capitals and Lucknow Super Giants have completed a player swap that sends Pant back to Delhi and moves India spinner Kuldeep Yadav the other way, a deal the IPL confirmed on June 23 ahead of the 2027 season.
It is the rare trade that reshapes two squads at once, and it undoes one of the boldest auction calls of recent years. Lucknow bought Pant for 27 crore at the 2025 mega auction, a figure that still stands as the most expensive purchase in IPL history. He returns to Delhi on a revised fee of 15 crore. Kuldeep, who has spent the last few seasons as Delhi’s frontline wrist-spinner, joins Lucknow on his existing 13.5 crore deal.
A homecoming for Pant
Delhi is home for Pant in every sense that matters to an IPL career. He came through the franchise as a teenager, played nine seasons in their colours, made 111 appearances and led the side in 43 matches before leaving after the 2024 campaign. The 27-crore move to Lucknow was supposed to be the next chapter. Instead it became a season to forget for everyone involved.
Pant managed 312 runs in 13 innings for Lucknow in 2026, with a best of 68 not out and a strike rate of 138.05. Those are respectable numbers in isolation, but they came in a team that finished bottom of the table with four wins from 14 games. He stepped down as captain once the season ended, and the writing was on the wall for a reset.
What Lucknow get in Kuldeep
For Lucknow, the appeal is a proven match-winner with the ball. Kuldeep has been one of the most dependable spinners in the format for India across white-ball cricket, and he gives the Super Giants a control option through the middle overs they have lacked. His 2026 returns for Delhi were modest by his standards, ten wickets in 11 innings at an economy of 10.29, but the broader body of work is why teams want him.
The swap also tidies up the books for both franchises before the next auction. Shedding Pant’s salary and bringing in Kuldeep changes the shape of Lucknow’s purse, while Delhi take on their returning captain at a lower number than the one that priced him out of their plans a year ago.
The bigger picture before IPL 2027
Trades of this size do not happen often, and they rarely involve two India internationals moving in opposite directions. For Delhi, the logic is straightforward. They get back a wicketkeeper-batter who knows the franchise, can captain it and arrives cheaper than he left. For Lucknow, a wooden-spoon finish demanded change, and turning a 27-crore experiment into a frontline spinner plus auction flexibility is a clean way to start again.
Both moves will be judged when the 2027 season gets underway. For now, the headline is a familiar one in a new setting. Pant is a Delhi player once more, and the franchise that made him is betting that the second spell looks more like the first than the year in between.