As per the reports, Lucknow Super Giants are most likely to release KL Rahul before the IPL 2025 auction. Each of the franchises has been considering the optimum mix of retention, Right-To-Match and new signing at the auction after the IPL Governing Council announced the retention policy. There has been a lot of speculation regarding Rahul’s stay with the Super Giants, taking into account the form that he showed in the previous season and his absence from India’s T20I squad. It has been indicated that several sources have hinted Rahul did not receive a vote of confidence from the LSG management prior to the cut-off for retention.
Times of India reports that LSG’s mentor Zaheer Khan and coach Justin Langer studies the impact of Rahul’s performances to the losses sustained by the team last season. After a thorough digging of numbers, it was found out that the chances of the team’s loss increased with the number of balls Rahul played in the middle.
“The LSG management including mentor Zaheer Khan and coach Justin Langer have analyzed his stats and it has come to light that the team has lost almost all the matches that KL batted long and scored runs them. That suggests that his strike rate places him behind the game. With the Impact Player rule in effect, high scores are becoming common. You cannot have a player occupying the crease for so long at the top order,’ an IPL insider told the paper.
The feature also states that ‘LSG is certain to keep hold of Mayank Yadav, the express pacer’ as these may solidify his prospects further. In fact, he is likely to be one of the top 3 players to be retained by the franchise.
“Mayank is LSG’s find. They invested in him when no one knew of him and he has shown what kind of impact he can have on a match,” the report further said.
Additionally, it has been claimed that franchise may keep untested talents Ayush Badoni and Mohsin Khan as well.
Moreover, LSG are keen on acquiring Rishabh Pant for the captaincy position if the Delhi Capitals let him go.
