As expected, the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) franchise has decided not to retain last season’s captain KL Rahul ahead of the IPL 2025 auction.

KL Rahul and LSG owner Sanjiv Goenka had a very public falling out last season which led to speculations that both parties would part ways.

However, reports ahead of the IPL 2025 retention deadline indicated that despite the speculated animosity, India’s star batsman was offered top retention by the franchise but he turned it down citing “personal and professional reasons”.

Now, after confirming the list of players retained for the upcoming season, Sanjiv Goenka has investigated KL Rahul.

“It was a simple mindset to go with players who have a winning mentality, who put the team before their personal goals and aspirations and we wanted to retain as much of the core as we could,” Sanjiv Goenka said.

LSG retains five players ahead of IPL 2025 auction

As previously reported by Cricxtasy, LSG has made Caribbean wicketkeeper-batsman Nicholas Pooran their top retainer at INR 21 crore. Apart from that, the franchise has retained its Indian core with two international and two non-international players.

Mayank Yadav (INR 11 million) and Ravi Bishnoi (INR 11 million) are the two international players along with Ayush Badoni (INR 4 million) and Mohsin Khan (INR 4 million).

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Lucknow Super Giants have retained five players at a cost of INR 51 crore, leaving them with INR 69 crore to use in the upcoming auction. Additionally, they have a Right-to-Match (RTM) card, which gives them the option to re-sign a player of their choice. According to reports, despite the release of KL Rahul, LSG could still consider bringing him back using the RTM option.

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