KL Rahul will go into the mega auctions set to take place in November this year as Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), the franchise Rahul has been leading for the last two years, is unlikely to retain him. With a week to go before the franchises announce their final list of retained and released players, The Times of India has reported that Rahul would not be retained by the Lucknow-based franchise. There was speculation of the same ever since the right-handed wicketkeeper-batter had a public fallout with LSG owner Sanjiv Goenka after an IPL against the Sunrisers Hyderabad earlier this year but both the franchise and Rahul were tight-lipped. The LSG captain also met Goenka at his residence in Kolkata a few months ago to discuss the possibilities.

Now, it appears that the discussions did not go in Rahul's favour. The opening batter's strike rate was pointed out as the major issue by new mentor Zaheer Khan and head coach Justin Langer. "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 sources were quoted as saying in the report.

Rahul scored 520 runs in 14 matches while batting at the top of the order for LSG at a strike rate of 136.13. His strike was the lowest among all batters who scored more than 400 runs in IPL 2024.

Despite this, LSG has not dismissed the possibility of bidding for him during the auction. The franchise might determine on auction day how much they are willing to spend on Rahul.

Mayank Yadav to be retained

Additionally, IPL sources mentioned that the LSG management views Mayank Yadav as a player with potential for the future, and it wouldn't be surprising if he ranks higher than Bishnoi on the retention list.

"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," IPL sources said, adding that LSG are trying to preserve as much of the purse as possible. That could imply Ayush Badoni and left-arm seamer Mohsin Khan being retained as uncapped players by the franchise.

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