Amid doubts over his future as captain of the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), star batter KL Rahul met with the franchise owner Sanjeev Goenka at his office earlier this week. Recent reports jave claimed that LSG are set to retain Rahul for upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) season 2025, but not as a captain. This comes after Goenka was seen having a heated chat with LSG captain Rahul last season after SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) took just 9.4 overs to chase down 166.
Rahul’s future as captain has remained in the air ever since that chat with LSG owner Goenka. Reports have also claimed that Rahul might even leave the franchise and is set to enter the IPL 2025 mega auction.
As dark clouds loom over Rahul’s future at LSG, the owner Goenka has opened up on his bond with the star batter.
“Look, I’ve been meeting KL regularly over last three years. I’m a little surprised this meeting got so much attention. As I’ve said we have not taken any call till the retention rules are out,” Goenka told reporters while unveiling Zaheer Khan as their team mentor.
“But KL has been an integral and important part of the LSG family since inception. He’s played a very important role. He’s like family and will be family.” When asked about player retention and captaincy, Goenka said they are yet to arrive at a decision and are waiting for the BCCI to release the rules regarding retention.
“We have all of September, October and November to decide that. Let the policies be out. We have not even thought about the team going forward, whether retention will be three-four-five or six, we have no clue,” Goenka said.
“Let us see, there is enough time, so bit by bit. Whatever decisions we take today will impact us for the medium term future, so it has to be very well thought out and considered.
“There is enough time for it so it’s too early. Let the BCCI announce the policy first, then there will be discussions.” Asked whether they are going to press the “reset mode” under the newly-appointed mentor Zaheer, he said: “You always try and improve and that is a constant endeavour. When you have a mega auction, there is bound to be a reset but you want to retain the core as much as possible you can. Let’s see how it goes.
“One doesn’t know which way what goes. Certainly the coach (Justin Langer) continues, Lance Kluesener (assistant coach), Jonty Rhodes (fielding coach) also continue. We are delighted for Morne Morkel and Gautam Gambhir, very pleased they have joined the national team,” Goenka said.
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