Speculations are rife that KL Rahul and LSG would part ways ahead of the auction.
While there is no clarity yet on the number of retentions each franchise will be allowed, rumours about possible moves in some of the teams have already started.
Speculations are rife that KL Rahul would leave Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) or the franchise would not retain the Indian batter as skipper after what happened in the IPL 2024 season.
Notably, LSG owner Sanjiv Goenka was caught on camera having a heated conversation with Rahul after the team’s loss to Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on May 8. The clip of their animated chat went viral on social media and it became a major topic of discussion among fans and cricket experts.
Amidst all this, Rahul visited the franchise's Kolkata office on Monday (August 25) for a meeting with Goenka, Cricbuzz reported.
According to the report, the meeting was centred around the team composition and the potential retention of Rahul.
Last month, media reports suggested that Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) are looking for an Indian option as a captain and KL Rahul could be a potential candidate to fill the position. However, the speculations of his return to RCB remain unconfirmed as of now.
Meanwhile, the BCCI is yet to announce the official retention policy. It would be interesting to see if the RTM option is given to the IPL teams. RTM used to enable teams to match the highest bid for the player that played for them in the previous season and secure his services again.
In the 2018 mega-auction, a maximum of five players were allowed to retain by each team. Of the five, three players were retained before the auction, while up to three could be bought back by a team through the RTM option in the auction.
During the 2022 mega-auction, when Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Super Giants entered the IPL, the eight other teams were allowed to retain four players, but the RTM options were not used since the BCCI wanted GT and LSG to have a larger player pool to choose from.
(With Cricbuzz Inputs)