As expected, the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) franchise decided against retaining last season’s skipper KL Rahul ahead of the IPL 2025 auction.
KL Rahul and LSG owner Sanjiv Goenka had a very public fallout last season which led to speculations of both parties parting ways.
However, reports prior to the IPL 2025 retention deadline stated that despite speculated animosity, the star India batter was offered the top retention by the franchise but he turned it down citing ‘personal and professional reasons’.
Now, after confirming the list of retained players for the next season, Sanjiv Goenka took a dig at KL Rahul.
“It was a simple mindset to go in with players who have a mindset to win, who put the team first before their personal goals and personal aspirations and we wanted to retain as much as of core we could,” said Sanjiv Goenka.
LSG retains five players ahead of IPL 2025 auction
As reported by Cricxtasy earlier, LSG has made Caribbean wicketkeeper-batter Nicholas Pooran their top retention at INR 21 crore. Along with that, the franchise has retained its Indian core with two capped and two uncapped players.
Mayank Yadav (INR 11 crore) and Ravi Bishnoi (INR 11 crore) are the two capped players alongside Ayush Badoni (INR 4 crore) and Mohsin Khan (INR 4 crore).
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Lucknow Super Giants have retained five players at a cost of INR 51 crores, leaving them with INR 69 crores to utilize in the upcoming auction. Additionally, they hold one Right-to-Match (RTM) card, which grants them the option to re-sign a player of their choice. According to reports, despite KL Rahul’s release, LSG might still consider bringing him back by utilizing the RTM option.
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