Former South African skipper AB de Villiers revealed he was not surprised after Rishabh Pant was traded to Delhi Capitals from Lucknow Super Giants in exchange for Kuldeep Yadav. AB highlighted that Pant’s frustration was palpable during his post-match interviews in IPL 2026 and it was coming from the ownership and coaching staff.

Pant even dropped a F-bomb after one of the losses in the previous season. The southpaw scored 312 runs in 14 matches of IPL 2026 at an average of 28.36 and a strike rate of 138.05 and thus could not lead from the front.

“No surprises there after the season they’ve had and looking at some of his post-match interviews, there were already signs of him being frustrated and maybe the frustration is coming from the ownership and coaching staff as well. So he is returning back to DC,” AB de Villiers said on his YouTube channel.

Meanwhile, former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly and all-rounder Yuvraj Singh are expected to take over the director of cricket and batting coach role respectively at Delhi Capitals.

“Sourav Ganguly joins DC now as the director of cricket, Yuvraj also there as batting coach, with Pant returning. So we’ll see the dynamic with that. I feel it is a bit wishy-washy, doing this whole ownership change, the coaching staff comes and goes, it’s really difficult for players to react to that and have a positive mindset with all these changes taking place. It can be confusing and there is no doubt about that,” he stated.

“It is also interesting how Pant skipped the two-year GMR cycle. JSW coming back in now, we’ll see how they go with their two-year ownership. All confusing, you know, I am not a big fan of that,” he added.

Pant played nine seasons with Delhi Capitals from 2016 to 2024, making 111 appearances – the most by any player for DC. He also captained the side in 43 matches from 2021 to 2024.