New Bharat TV
Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) are set to part ways with captain KL Rahul by mutual consent ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) mega auction. The IPL Governing Council has set October 31 as the deadline for teams to submit the list of players retained and released from the current squad. According to a report in Cricbuzz, Rahul has expressed his desire to leave LSG after his request to bat in the middle-order was rejected by the management due to structure and dynamics.
The report also revealed that LSG may use the Right to Match (RTM) card on Australian all-rounder Marcus Stoinis.
“Although LSG have the option to exercise RTM for Rahul, the chances of that happening are very slim – virtually zero. They could do the same for a player like Marcus Stoinis,” the report claims.
With Rahul released, LSG are likely to retain Nicholas Pooran, Mayank Yadav, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohsin Khan and Ayush Badoni, with the last two being uncapped retentions.
Rahul has been linked with many teams before the auction. However, if he enters the auction table, RCB may go all out for their former player.
Before joining Punjab in 2018, he played two seasons for RCB in 2013 and 2016 respectively.
Rahul's strike rate has been a point of contention for LSG throughout. In fact, he has not scored more than 140 on strike since the 2019 IPL season, and reached a low of 113 in 2023.
If Rahul and LSG decide to part ways by mutual consent, he will be one of the big Indian names to join the auction pool. Rahul has scored 4,683 IPL runs over the years at an average of 45 and a strike rate of 134.
All is not going well for Rahul as he was dropped from India's playing eleven for the second Test against New Zealand in Pune. However, he has been included in the squad for the upcoming Test tour of Australia.
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