The last couple of days have left social media buzzing as multiple reports have surfaced, claiming that Lucknow Super Giants is set to release KL Rahul ahead of the upcoming IPL 2025 mega auction.
Rahul has served as the skipper of the franchise ever since their debut in IPL 2022. During this stint, Lucknow’s IPL team has qualified for the playoffs twice (2022 and 2023) but they failed to make it to the top four last season. As a captain, this stint can be called fairly good but that’s not where the problem lies.
As Lucknow’s IPL team captain, Rahul has accumulated his runs at a substandard overall strike rate of 130.67. Not only that he has been a very slow starter, scoring at a mere strike-rate of 118.3 in the powerplay during these three years. Such slow starts haven’t helped his team get off to good starts, and as Khel Now reports, the franchise is now looking for players who are more tuned to the pace of the game.
Before joining LSG, Rahul was with the Punjab Kings for four seasons. Although he excelled as a batter in that franchise, he couldn’t lead the team into the playoffs in any season. So, Rahul hasn’t managed to win a trophy even after being in charge of two teams for seven seasons and that isn’t going down well for him heading into the upcoming auction.
LSG owner Sanjiv Goenka was also seen engaging in a hot altercation with Rahul after their side lost a close encounter to Sunrisers Hyderabad in the league stage of IPL 2024. That incident drew a lot of attention on social media. Even though Goenka invited the Indian batter got Dinner at his home after this incident and everything looked like calming down, it looks like things were not so rosy after all. Reports back then suggested that Rahul might leave Sanjiv Goenka’s IPL team and it looks like it’s coming true now.
KL Rahul is now a top captaincy target for RCB
This isn’t the end of the road for the 32-year-old though. He will find many suitors if he goes into the auction and will probably draw quite a hefty price tag as well. But, if recent reports are to be believed, he has emerged as a top target for Royal Challengers Bengaluru who are looking to replace their current skipper Faf du Plessis.
Du Plessis is already 40 years old, hence it won’t be wise on RCB’s part to retain him for the next three-year cycle. This might actually be the last time we are seeing Faf du Plessis in the IPL. That’s why they are looking to move past him and look for a new captain.
Dinesh Karthik, RCB’s wicketkeeper-batter, also announced his retirement at the end of the last season. Rahul’s acquisition will also solve that headache for RCB as he will also don the wicket-keeping gloves apart from wearing the captain’s hat.
Interestingly, RCB had KL Rahul in 2016 IPL roster. He had a fabulous outing in that season, amassing 397 runs at a strike rate of 146.49. It was probably one of the best seasons in KL Rahul’s IPL career. RCB also went into the final of that edition and finished as the runners-up, losing a nail-biting contest to SRH in the final.
Moreover, this move would be sort of a homecoming for Rahul as he was born in the same city, Bengaluru. Fans will be happy to see a familiar face returning to their beloved team and will be hoping for a resurgence under his leadership.
But Rahul hasn’t had the best time in this format of late. His strike rate has been a big concern and that’s why he was also left out of India’s squad for the recently concluded T20 World Cup. Now, the onus is on Rahul to consciously make improvements in his game so that he can revive his T20 career again.
Even though nothing has been confirmed officially yet, this is still a big development. While the LSG fans will be quite sad to see Rahul go, the RCB fans will welcome him with open arms. RCB will need to be mindful of KL Rahul’s IPL salary though, which is INR 17 crores. They already have costly players like Virat Kohli and Cameron Green in their roster, so they need to plan their retention accordingly.
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