IPL franchise Lucknow Super Giants is reportedly made up its mind to release their captain KL Rahul ahead of the auction. Rahul has been part of the franchise since their inception in 2022 having led them in three seasons with two of them resulting in playoffs qualifications.
According to a report in The Times of IndiaLSG aren’t impressed with Rahul’s scoring rate which they feel has had a negative impact on the results.
“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,” an IPL source was quoted as saying by the daily.
“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,” the source added.
The franchise though could bid for Rahul at the auction.
As per the report, fast bowling sensation Mayank Yadav, legspinner Ravi Bishnoi and wicketkeeper-batter Nicholas Pooran are expected to be among LSG’s top-three retentions.
The deadline for announcing retentions is October 31.
Rahul has played 38 matches for LSG so far and scored 1410 so far. He scored 616 runs at a strike-rate of 135.38 in 2022 which dropped to 113.22 in 2023 – a season that saw him picking up an injury midway through the campaign that limited his participation to just nine games. The 32-year-old played 14 matches in IPL 224 and scored 520 runs at a strike-rate of 136.13.
Rahul’s best season as far as strike-rate is concerned came during 2018. Playing for Punjab Kings (then Kings XI Punjab), he scored 659 runs from 14 matches at a strike-rate of 158.41.
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