Indian wicketkeeper batter KL Rahul has expressed his views on how Lucknow Super Giants’ owner Sanjiv Goenka was engaged in conversation with captain Rahul during the 2024 IPL, after their team was beaten down badly by Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) – ‘it was a long chat.’ LSG’s other match against SRH was quite crucial in their quest to qualify for the playoffs where they were hoping for a big win. However, the team was shocked by the outcome of the match which ended in a humiliating defeat of 10 wickets. It was normal for the owner of LSG who was understandably furious about the outcome of the match and later on was spotted hawking skipper Rahul along the corner of the venue, Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.
“As a team, we were all in shock because we were at the stage in that tournament where every game was very important. It was a must-win scenario with a set number of games left. We had to win, I think, three out of five games or two out of the last four games. When this happened, it was just a big shock for all of us,” said Rahul on Star Sports.
“That happened on the field post the match was not the most pleasant to be a part of nor is it something one particularly wishes to witness on the cricket field. I do think that it affected the entire group. We believed we still had a hope of qualifying for the playoffs. We as a team spoke about how it was best to disperse and put on our game faces instead. We did our absolute best, but our absolute best, alas, was not always sufficient. The worst part about it was that we didn’t even get to the playoffs and win the season, which we obviously wished for,” he added.
While the actual words exchanged between the individuals were not audible, the dynamic dialogue between the owner and captain as aired by the broadcasting station, went viral. Both pundits and supporters have been of the opinion that the issues pertaining to the defeat ought to be handled off the fans rather than in the open.
The LSG captain Rahul led from the front but only managed a paltry 29 runs off 33 balls as his team managed a below par total of 165 after LSG won the toss and decided to bat first. However, LSG managed to put up a decent score thanks to Ayush Badoni’s 55 and Nicholas Pooran’s 48 who put on 99 runs partnership towards the end. In chase, Openers Travis Head (89 off 30) and Abhishek (75 off 28) unleashed a carnage on LSG bowlers as SRH chased the target of 166 runs in a quick unbroken stand of 9.4 overs.
About that particular match, Rahul said: “I don’t really know how much was made outside. But I just remember I was probably part of Cirque du Soleil there as a player. But also, just sitting behind the stumps, I was really impressed by how Sunrisers thrashed us. We saw on the screen how frightening or rather fearless Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head were.
“But putting it in a different way, whatever we did that day, seemed to go for four. Whatever our bowlers bowled seemed to go in the crowd after striking the middle of the bat. Scoring 160, 170 runs in around nine overs was unbelievable. And almost like, we had to pinch ourselves to know what actually transpired.
Interestingly, during the IPL 2025 retention day, LSG released their captain Rahul thus ending the three years partnership with the right-handed batter. Pooran is their costliest retention at Rs 21 crores, targeting Ravi Bishnoi and Mayank Yadav who are retained at Rs 11 crores each followed by Badoni and Mohsin Khan retained at Rs 4 crores each.