Reports: DC's skipper Rishabh Pant likely to join CSK as MS Dhoni's replacement in IPL 2025

The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season is eight months away, but several rumours have already made it quite enjoyable. As per reports, Delhi Capitals' are looking to release their captain, Rishabh Pant, in the upcoming IPL season ahead of the mega auction. While MS Dhoni might leave CSK, the franchise aims to pick Pant as a replacement for their former skipper. 

Reports suggest that the DC management isn't happy with Pant's captaincy, so they will release him from the squad. BCCI will announce the retention policy soon so that the franchises can make long-term plans. The mega auction will be held in December, and all team owners will come together to select the players who will be a part of the team in the upcoming years. 

Also Read: BCCI set for talks with IPL teams to create roadmap ahead of IPL 2025 mega auctions

For CSK, Ruturaj Gaikwad will be captaining the team, while DC doesn't have any specific player to become the captain. However, CSK does require a professional keeper for the team who can handle the middle order as well. On the other hand, DC's captaincy role is vacant and this situation is tricky for them. Thus, it will be interesting to see which player they'll go for in the auction and how they manage the situation. 

Ruturaj Gaikwad dropped from India's T20I squad

While the Sri Lanka series is about to start on August 27, India will be looking forward to playing some quality cricket and winning the series just like they did in Zimbabwe. For the series, BCCI declared the squad and named Rohit Sharma the ODI captain and Suryakumar Yadav the T20I captain. However, the selectors have missed out on Ruturaj Gaikwad from the T20I squad even though he is in the 7th rank in the ICC T20Is rankings. 

Dropping a brilliant player from the team after having an exceptional series against Zimbabwe is something that seemed controversial. Gaikwad scored 133 runs in three innings against Zimbabwe with an average of 66.50. He was the third-highest run-getter in the series and played incredibly well. The entire cricket fraternity is unhappy with the decision as Shubman Gill is picked up instead of Gaikwad as the vice-captain of India.