Lucknow Super Giants and Delhi Capitals have formally completed one of the biggest trades of the IPL 2027 pre-season window, swapping wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant and left-arm wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav in a straight player-for-player deal. Pant moves to Delhi Capitals, the franchise he represented for nine seasons before LSG signed him at record expense in 2025, while Kuldeep heads to Lucknow.
LSG had bought Pant at the auction ahead of IPL 2025 for ₹27 crore, still the highest fee ever paid for a player at an IPL auction. As part of this trade, Pant moves to Delhi Capitals at a revised fee of ₹15 crore, while Kuldeep joins LSG at his existing price of ₹13.5 crore. The gap between the two fees works in Lucknow's favour heading into the next auction: LSG gain roughly ₹13.5 crore of extra purse space, while Delhi Capitals have about ₹1.5 crore deducted from theirs.
The move takes Pant back to the franchise where he first made his name, having played for Delhi Capitals across nine IPL seasons from 2016 to 2024 before his switch to Lucknow. Reports describe the fee reduction as a pay cut Pant accepted as part of the trade terms, a similar arrangement to the one that took Ravindra Jadeja from Chennai Super Kings to Rajasthan Royals — in a swap for Sanju Samson — ahead of last season, where Jadeja's fee dropped from ₹18 crore to ₹14 crore.
For Delhi Capitals, getting Pant back restores a senior wicketkeeper-batter with captaincy experience to a top order that has gone through repeated personnel changes in recent seasons. For Lucknow, losing Pant is a significant blow to their batting depth, but adding Kuldeep gives them a proven wicket-taking spinner and frees up purse space they can use at the next auction to address other squad gaps. Neither trade is without risk: Pant's return to Delhi comes with the burden of expectation that follows any high-profile homecoming, and Lucknow now needs a like-for-like replacement behind the stumps.
Unlike some IPL trades that look lopsided in hindsight, this one has a plausible logic on both ends. Delhi Capitals get a proven, high-ceiling batter back into their top order without paying auction-record money for him, while Lucknow convert an expensive keeper-batter slot into a frontline spinner plus meaningful purse flexibility ahead of a mini-auction where every crore of headroom matters. The trade also continues a pattern from the last two IPL off-seasons of star players accepting reduced fees to force a move — a dynamic worth watching as more franchises reshape their squads before the 2027 auction.
More trade and auction coverage, including the IPL Governing Council's decision to bring the 2027 mini-auction back to India, is available on SportGod's blog, with fantasy contests open in SportGod's free games and AI-powered previews on SportGod's predictions page ahead of the new season.
The trade terms, fee figures and purse impact are verified against same-day reporting, current as of September 19, 2026.
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