IPL Retention: Report reveals how Zaheer Khan and Justin Langer decided to not retain LSG captain KL Rahul

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IPL Retention: KL Rahul's journey with the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) seems all but over as he is unlikely to be retained ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auction.

The 32-year-old has been the captain of the franchise since its inaugural year in 2022. KL Rahul was also their top run-scorer in the IPL 2024, but his strike rate remained under scrutiny.

The same factor reportedly convinced newly-appointed LSG mentor Zaheer Khan, and head coach Justin Langer to let go off KL Rahul. A close observation of KL Rahul's batting statistics for LSG revealed that the team lost all the matches in which he batted for long and scored runs.

"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 told TOI.

LSG to retain Mayank Yadav, Nicholas Pooran and Ravi Bishnoi

The Times of India source added that Mayank Yadav will be among three capped players to be retained by Sanjeev Goenka's Lucknow Super Giants. Nicholas Pooran and Ravi Bishnoi are the other two players. Pooran is also being seen as a captaincy candidate for the IPL 2025.

"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.

This could also mean that domestic stars Ayush Badoni and left-arm seamer Mohsin Khan could also be retained as uncapped players for Rs 4 crore each.

Further, teams including LSG and Punjab Kings (PBKS) are also keen on signing Rishabh Pant as their captain if he is not retained by Delhi Capitals. Co-owner Parth Jindal has declared that Pant would be their first retention but certain modalities need to be worked after the recent regime change in operations. GMR group have taken the responsibilities from JSW and would be in charge for the next two seasons.