Rishabh Pant’s return to Delhi Capitals has created a lot of buzz before the IPL 2027 but former India opener Wasim Jaffer feels Pant should not become the captain again.
According to Jaffer, if Delhi Capitals offer the captaincy to Rishabh Pant, he should politely refuse it. The wicketkeeper-batsman should instead concentrate on getting his batting form back and trying to make a comeback into India’s T20 and ODI teams.
Rishabh Pant, who is 28 years old, is all set to come back to Delhi after spending two seasons with Lucknow Super Giants. He had moved to LSG before the IPL 2025. Now he is returning to DC as part of a trade deal. In this deal, Pant has been valued at Rs 15 crore, while left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav is going to LSG for Rs 13.50 crore.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Wasim Jaffer explained his point. He said that when a player becomes captain of a franchise, there is huge pressure from team owners, a lot of expectations from fans and the added stress of managing his own performance. He gave the example of KL Rahul who is enjoying his cricket more just as a player after leaving captaincy. Wasim Jaffer said Rishabh Pant already has a lot on his plate as he has to keep wickets and also bat, so captaincy will only add more burden.
In the IPL 2026, Axar Patel was the captain of Delhi Capitals. But both Axar and the team failed to perform well. DC finished at sixth position with only 7 wins in 14 matches.
Rishabh Pant’s record as captain at Lucknow Super Giants was also not great. The team failed to reach the playoffs in both seasons under him. It was reported that Pant found it difficult to handle too many different voices from the team management in Lucknow and the situation in Delhi might not be very different. Stats also show that Rishabh Pant has played almost the same number of IPL matches as a captain and as a non-captain but his batting average and strike-rate are slightly better when he is not leading the team.
Wasim Jaffer said Rishabh Pant’s main focus right now should be his comeback to Team India. He feels Pant’s performance has dropped in recent times. His first goal should be to score a lot of runs in the IPL and get back into India’s white-ball squads. Jaffer added that captaincy should not be his priority at the moment because he is not even part of India’s leadership group. However, Wasim Jaffer also said that he still has full faith in Rishabh Pant’s ability to win matches on his own. He believes Pant can make a bigger impact as a pure batter without the pressure of captaincy.
Delhi Capitals will have a difficult choice to make. The team will now be coached by Sourav Ganguly. If they decide not to continue with Axar Patel as captain, KL Rahul could be an option, but the same logic of avoiding captaincy applies to him as well. Finding a good captain in this year’s mini-auction will also be very tough for DC.
Let’s see who will lead Delhi Capitals in the IPL 2027.
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