"Everyone knew that I am playing after one-and-a-half years so it was a long time to wait outside the ground. Loved every bit of it, just coming onto the ground, I just don't want to stay away from the ground, want to stay on the field all the time."

Pant also touched upon the problems DC faced through their season, many of them out of the team's control. Harry Brook and Lungi Ngidi were unavailable through the season, Ishant Sharma, Mitchell Marsh and Kuldeep Yadav missed a number of games with injuries, and Pant himself copped an over-rate suspension, missing DC's penultimate game. That they stayed in contention for the playoffs until their last game was satisfying, Pant said.

"I think, I would say we started the season with a lot of hope," he said. "But we had a few injuries here and there, few ups and downs, illnesses, but as a franchise you can't complain all the time. You've got to make the best use of whatever you have in your hand.

"I think we were very close, as you can see till the last game we are in close contention for the playoffs. You know there are some things you can control, and some things you can't. You know last match what happened, I couldn't play. I'm not saying that if I had played we would have definitely [won] but we would have had a better chance of qualifying I guess."

Rahul: LSG's powerplay batting biggest disappointment

"I feel the wicket remained pretty similar through the 40 overs. When we got Jake [Fraser-McGurk] out in the first over, I thought we started off really well and we should have capitalised from there. But that's how the season has been, where the players keep coming [at the bowling] even if wickets keep going. They showed a lot of intent, Shai Hope and Abishek Porel. They took the momentum away from us. We did well in the back end, and 200 [208] was a par score. We should have chased it down."

Seventh-placed LSG's final game of the season is against Mumbai Indians on Friday. Their net run-rate of -0.787 means their chances of qualifying are mostly just mathematical.