The star Indian cricketer KL Rahul is reportedly looking to skip a potential retention offer from Lucknow Super Giants and is expected to enter the IPL 2025 mega auction.
According to a report from ESPNCricinfo, the LSG skipper has not shown any commitment to accepting a retention offer but the final decision hasn't been made yet. All franchises can retain up to six players and the deadline to submit the retention list is October 31.
Lucknow Super Giants secured playoffs in 2022 and 2023 but finished seventh last season with just seven wins in 14 games under Rahul's leadership. The experienced opener has been a record scorer for his franchise with 1410 runs across seasons, including 520 runs in 2024.
However, the prolific run-scorer came under heavy criticism for his below-par strike rate of 136.12 in the 2024 edition. In 2024, Rahul has scored 265 runs in 10 international innings.
Meanwhile, Lucknow Super Giants are likely to pick the star West Indies wicketkeeper batter Nicholas Pooran as their first retention pick for INR 18 crore. Pooran has established himself as one the best T20 batters in the world and can offer leadership skills as well.
LSG Squad
KL Rahul (c), Quinton de Kock, Nicholas Pooran, Ayush Badoni, Deepak Hooda, K Gowtham, Krunal Pandya, Kyle Mayers, Marcus Stoinis, Prerak Mankad, Yudhvir Singh, Mark Wood, Mayank Yadav, Mohsin Khan, Ravi Bishnoi, Yash Thakur, Amit Mishra, Naveen-ul-Haq, Shivam Mavi, Arshin Kulkarni, M Siddharth, Ashton Turner, David Willey, Arshad Khan.
