KL Rahul will reportedly miss his chance of leading Lucknow Supergiants ahead of the 2025 IPL. There was speculation since the right-handed wicketkeeper-batter had a public fallout with LSG owner Sanjiv Goenka after a disappointing IPL loss against the Sunrisers Hyderabad earlier this year. As per the sources of the Times of India, KL Rahul who has been leading the team from 2022 would not be retained by the franchise. Moreover, months ago the captain was also spotted at Goenka’s Kolkata residence.
After the entry of Zaheer Khan and head coach Justin Langer into the team the opening batter’s strike rate was pointed out as the major issue for the team. Let’s check out what the sources have noted.
KL Rahul’s strike rate doesn’t match the momentum of the game as per the mentors
IPL sources of the report quoted by saying, “The LSG management, including mentor Zaheer Khan and coach Justin Langer, has analyzed 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.”
Last season, KL Rahul scored 520 runs in 14 matches. Batted at the top of the order for LSG at a strike rate of 136.13, his performance is not up to the mark according to the mentor and coach. In fact, his strike rate was the lowest among all batters scoring more than 400 runs in the last IPL season.
On top of that, Rahul has also showcased a disappointing performance in the recent Test series of India against Bangladesh and New Zealand.
Additionally, the source has also revealed that youngster Mayank Yadav is going to be retained for the next season as it added “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.”
For now, Rahul’s fans can only wish for his comeback as without any doubt he has India’s one of the greatest batsmen of this generation who’s just having hard luck.
