KL Rahul captained LSG for two seasons in IPL.
He first captained the Punjab Kings for two seasons and then moved to the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and captained them for two seasons. Rahul was recently retained by the Delhi Capitals franchise ahead of the IPL 2026 auction.
Rahul struggled as a leader despite being one of the best players in the IPL; following an IPL 2024 match, LSG owner Sanjiv Goenka even publicly chastised him.
Following LSG's humbling 10-wicket loss to Sunrisers Hyderabad, in which they scored 165/4 and SRH chased it down in only 9.4 overs without losing any wickets, several videos showing Goenka losing his cool at Rahul went viral on the internet. Following that incident, Rahul was not retained by LSG ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auction, despite being their greatest run-getter in IPL 2024.
Rahul, who has led India in all three formats of the game, has never publicly spoken about the incident, but in a recent interview with sports journalist and analyst Jatin Sapru, he has opened up about the trials of managing an IPL team.
He didn't mention Goenka by name, but he did indirectly blame him for demanding reasons for the team's losses.
Rahul stated that there is no certainty of victory in sports, which those with an athletic background understand, but it is difficult to communicate to others without a sporting background.
“What I found hard as a captain in the IPL was the number of meetings that you needed to do, the number of reviews that you needed to do, and the number of things that you needed to explain at the ownership level. All of that is really like energy draining. So, I realized at the end of IPL that I am more mentally and physically drained than after playing 10 months of international cricket," Rahul told Sapru.
“There are so many things. Coaches and captains, you’re just constantly being asked a lot of questions, and after a point, it almost feels like you’re being questioned as to why you made this change. Why did Jatin play in the XI? Why is it that the opposition got 200, and we couldn’t even get 120? Why are their bowlers getting more spin?” he added.
Rahul added that these questions only come from the ownership and management level, who have no experience playing cricket. He mentioned how the coaches and team management people never question the leadership, as they know why things happen.
“I mean, these are questions that we never get asked throughout the year, right? This is due to the fact that the coaches in charge are well-informed about the current situation. You’re only answerable to the coach and the selectors, who’ve all played cricket and understand the nuances of cricket and sport. No matter what you do and how many boxes you tick, there’s nothing in sport that guarantees victory. So that’s the hard part to explain to people who come from a non-sporting background," he added.
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