IPL 2025 Retention: LSG did not retain KL Rahul due to poor strike rate and captaincy, now these teams are keeping an eye on

sports desk: The retention list of all the teams for IPL 2025 will be revealed by October 31. Tomorrow all the teams will retain their key member and the entire team will be built around him. Lucknow franchise has refused to retain KL Rahul. Now KL Rahul will go to the mega auction. KL Rahul has not been retained by Lucknow because of his poor strike rate and poor captaincy.

As per the choice of the franchise's head coach Justin Langer and mentor (guide) Zaheer Khan, the best finisher Nicholas Pooran was selected and decided to retain him. LSG decided to let KL Rahul go after keeping an eye on him for three years.

Decision taken after looking at three years' performance

According to media reports, LSG looked at the performance of the last three years and kept an eye on KL Rahul's strike rate and performance. He said that Langer and Zaheer kept all the statistics with them and in these three years, KL Rahul's strike rate was 136.13, 113.23 and 135.38. The management did not like this in the modern era of T20. In comparison, Pooran, who usually bats the last 10 overs, had a strike rate of 144.34 in 2022 and was very impressive with 172.95 and 178.21 in the next two seasons.

Also read: IPL 2025 Retention: Shubman Gill did what Hardik could not do, gave importance to the team before money

He further said that even if you look at Rahul's 520 runs, it will not help his team in qualification. Many matches have been won and lost because of our powerplay batting. Pooran, on the other hand, is an important member of the team and has also captained the West Indies. Talking about Mayank Yadav, he is the only bowler in the country to bowl at a speed of more than 150 kmph. LSG invested in him at a time when he was not special. Sources say, “Mayank is like a home player for LSG. “Given his talent, injuries don’t matter much because he is a valuable asset for us.”

These teams have their eyes on Rahul

After KL's separation from Lucknow, many teams are planning to include KL Rahul with them. In such a situation, the name of Royal Challengers Bangalore team is at the forefront. Apart from that, Gujarat Titans, Rajasthan Royals and Chennai team can run after KL Rahul. Now it remains to be seen which team's first choice will be KL.