KL Rahul's three-year journey with the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) came to an end after the opening batter and the franchise skipper wasn't one of the retentions for the side ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auction. LSG under Rahul made the playoffs twice in their first three years, however, the public reprimand by the owner and the results in the 2024 edition probably led to the undoing of the relationship between the two parties. Now, for the first time since the announcement of the retentions and releases, Rahul has opened up on the exit.
"I wanted to start fresh, I wanted to explore my options and I wanted to go and play where I could find some freedom, where the team atmosphere could be something lighter," Rahul said on the Star Sports Unplugged show promo. "Sometimes you need to move away and find something good for yourself."
Rahul, who was the first draft pick for the Super Giants back in 2022, suggested that he wants a fresh start and his main aim through the next IPL will be to make a return into the Indian T20 team having last played for the country in the format in the T20 World Cup in Australia a couple of years ago.
"I have been out of the T20 team for a while and I know where I stand as a player and I know what I need to do to get back, so I'll look forward to this IPL season to give me that platform where I can go back and enjoy my cricket and my aim is to obviously get back into the Indian T20 team," Rahul further added.
Rahul always had the tag of 'slow' and 'low strike rate' associated with him as since the wonderful season in 2018 he had for the then Kings XI Punjab, his scoring rate has come down considerably. In three seasons for the Super Giants, Rahul scored 1,410 runs at a strike rate of 130.67 at an average of 41.47. Rahul scored a couple of hundreds for the Lucknow-based side but didn't make enough match-winning contributions for the Sanjiv Goenka-owned franchise to retain him.
Lucknow went ahead with the retentions of Nicholas Pooran (INR 21 cr), Mayank Yadav (INR 11 cr), Ravi Bishnoi (INR 11 cr), Mohsin Khan (INR 4 cr), Ayush Badoni (INR 4 cr). With several teams in the market for a keeper-opener and a captain, Rahul is expected to be among the highest earners at the mega auction on November 24 and 25.
