Chopra also wondered whom will DC get to replace Kuldeep Yadav.
Pant was moved to DC for INR 15 crore after being purchased by LSG for INR 27 crore during the IPL 2025 auction. Kuldeep Yadav was acquired by the Lucknow-based team for his current value of INR 13.50 crore.
"If you were thinking about pay cuts, layoffs, and limited job opportunities in your life, just think about Rishabh Pant. A guy was earning ₹27 crore and will earn only 15 now. One gets slightly surprised while saying only 15, but only 15 because he was at ₹27 crore. It means a pay cut of ₹12 crore. People are not able to earn as much in their entire life," Chopra said on his YouTube channel.
Since LSG was unable to find a suitable spot for Pant in their batting lineup, Chopra believed that LSG had profited more from the trade.
"I genuinely feel that Lucknow has benefited more. Their batting order wasn't getting settled because all four of their overseas players were batters, and then among the Indian batters, they had Rishabh Pant, Ayush Badoni, and Mukul Choudhary. So you weren't able to bat him before No. 5, and if they tried to bat him before No. 5, an overseas batter had to go down, and the combination was not getting set," he observed.
"If I look at it from that perspective, they were not losing much by releasing him. The performance over the last two years hasn't been good either. He was made the captain with the expectation that the team would do well. If both years didn't go well, as a batter, you don't miss, and as a captain, there is nothing to write home about," Chopra elaborated.
Chopra stated that Kuldeep Yadav's joining LSG is a huge positive for them, as they needed an Indian spinner. He further said that LSG can release Nicholas Pooran or Aiden Markram and get someone else in.
Aakash Chopra also wondered where Rishabh Pant will bat for DC in IPL 2027.
"From Delhi's point of view, I am still intrigued as to where he would bat because they have many opening options, Nitish Rana had started doing well at No. 3, and then they have a good middle order in Tristan Stubbs, David Miller, Sameer Rizvi, and Ashutosh Sharma.
Have they solved a problem that was troubling them a lot? I am not 100 percent certain. They will gain because of Rishabh Pant going there, but was the year not good because of a middle-order batter? I don't think it's that straightforward," Chopra observed.
It remains a question who will be Kuldeep Yadav’s replacement in the Delhi contingent, as a left-arm wrist spinner is a rare commodity in IPL.