Rahul has led LSG in all three seasons that they have been part of the IPL.
Ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season, all teams are set to undergo a major overhaul as the mega auction will take place next month.
The BCCI has rolled out the retention guidelines, and now the ball is in the team’s court to make the tricky decisions. Each of the 10 IPL franchises can retain up to six cricketers, through the retention and Right To Match (RTM) option.
While October 31 is the deadline for retentions ahead of the upcoming mega-auction, rumours about possible moves in some of the teams have already started.
According to a TOI report, Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) are all set to release their skipper KL Rahul as the team management is not happy with his strike rate.
"The LSG management, including mentor Zaheer Khan and coach Justin Langer, has analysed his stats and it has emerged that the team has almost lost all matches where KL has batted long and scored runs. That indicates that his strike rate doesn't match the momentum of the game. With the Impact Player rule, the scores are getting higher. You can't afford to have someone taking so much time at the top of the order," TOI quoted IPL sources as saying.
Rahul was one of the marquee players signed by LSG ahead of their debut IPL season in 2022. He has captained the side in all three seasons that they have been part of the competition and has led them to the playoffs twice. LSG finished seventh in IPL 2024, failing to qualify for the playoffs for the first time.
The report also claims that young tearaway Mayank Yadav will be among the top three retentions at the franchise, along with Nicholas Pooran and Ravi Bishnoi.
"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," IPL sources said.
As per the report, LSG are trying to preserve as much of the purse as possible. That could imply Ayush Badoni and left-arm seamer Mohsin Khan being retained as uncapped players by the franchise.
The auction purse for the franchises has been set at INR 120 crore. The first three retentions will see the auction purse being reduced by Rs 18 crore, Rs 14 crore and Rs 11 crore, respectively. However, the two other additional retentions will cost more than the third. The fourth and the fifth retentions will see a reduction of Rs 18 crore and Rs 14 crore, respectively.
It means a team will see its auction purse reduced by a whopping Rs 75 crore on five players, with only Rs 45 crore left in its kitty for the mega auction.
(With TOI Inputs)