KL Rahul set to be released by LSG© BCCI/Sportzpics
As the trends indicated, KL Rahul is set to be released by the Lucknow Super Giants ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 auction. After the IPL Governing Council confirmed the retention rules, franchises have been contemplating the best combination of retention, Right-To-Match and fresh purchase at the auction. There's been suspense over Rahul's future with the Super Giants, considering the form he displayed last year, coupled with his exile from Team India's T20I side. It has now been reported that Rahul didn't get the vote of confidence from LSG bosses before the retention deadline.
According to a report in the Times of India, LSG mentor Zaheer Khan and coach Justin Langer did an analysis of Rahul's role in the franchise's losses 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, 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," IPL source told the paper.
The report also claims that express pacer Mayank Yadav is a sure-shot retention at LSG. 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.
It has also been reported that uncapped players like Ayush Badoni and Mohsin Khan are likely to be retained by the franchise.
LSG are also said to be interested in buying Rishabh Pant for the captaincy role, should the Delhi Capitals decide to release him.