India wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant sent social media into a frenzy with his midnight plea to Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami. Pant, who was born in Uttarakhand, was struggling to buy land in the state and he requiested the CM to help him. “@pushkardhami hello sir how’s you ??? It’s a long time for me especially being local from Uttrakhand . I have been trying to buy land to shift my base from Delhi to Uttrakhand and I couldn’t find anything facilitating and big to live here I love my Uttrakhand. My humble request to us is please help me in land acquisition cause nowadays it had become nitemare with clarity and even other land is dew which was I supposedly get when I was promoting the state before keeping everything in side I wanna move back to my native place to help and built around Uttrakhand and I want to shif back to my Pahadi people please look into this matter it’s been 3 years didn’t get any land awaiting your answer @pushkardhami sir,” he wrote on X.
Pant is a regular for the Delhi state team whenever he is not on international duty and plays for the state team. But will he move to Uttarakhand after shifting his base to state?
Speaking to Sports Now, DDCA Director Shyam Sunder Sharma confirmed that Pant will continue to represent the national capital in domestic cricket. “He will definitely play for Delhi. Right now, there is no such thing to my knowledge,” Sharma said.
“Look, what happens is that if you are not a resident of Uttarakhand, you need an NOC from the government to buy any land. And he wants to set up his academy there. Actually, the Uttarakhand government should proactively step forward and donate 40-50 acres of land to him, just like the Haryana government gave to Virender Sehwag. They should give it like that. He is such a big player, he came from your state, brought glory to the country, brought glory to your state. He shouldn’t have even needed to tweet about this.
“Every person has some duty toward the state where their parents’ roots are; there is an emotional attachment from within. So if that’s the case and he wants to play for Uttarakhand, he should definitely play. It will be Delhi’s loss, but he should play. Most welcome. From my side, it will be a very good step if he plays for Uttarakhand,” Sharma added.
Risabh Pant’s career for Delhi
After playing junior cricket for Rajasthan, Pant moved his base to Delhi and played junior cricket here. He quickly rose the ranks and broke into the India U19 cricket team. Pant made his first-class and List A debut for Delhi in 2015.
Following his success for Delhi, Pant earned his maiden India call-up for the home T20I series against England in 2017. He made his Test and ODI debuts in 2018. Pant captained Delhi to the final of the 2017-18 Ranji Trophy season.
Pant started his IPL career with Delhi Capitals (previously known as Delhi Daredevils) and played for them from 2016 to 2024. He moved to Lucknow Super Giants for IPL 2025 and 2026. Pant has returned to Delhi and will in action for the one-time finalists in IPL 2027.