IPL Auction 2025: KL Rahul's new fantasy from Lucknow Super Giants exposed out

India batter KL Rahul is set to be separated from Lucknow Super Giants and is likely to feature in the upcoming mega auctions of IPL 2025. While there were various speculations regarding the separation, the truth has finally come out.

KL Rahul joined Lucknow Super Giants from the franchise's debut IPL season in 2022. He was straight away appointed the captain of the team. The team reached two IPL playoffs, in 2022 and 2023 under his leadership.

However, LSG's think tank consisting of the head coach Justin Langer and the newly appointed mentor Zaheer Khan raised concerns over his strike rate and leadership. Rahul has been batting cautiously for the last few seasons which has also affected his team negatively.

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The reason behind the separation of KL Rahul and Lucknow Super Giants

According to Cricbuzz, KL Rahul expressed a desire to bat in the middle order from the IPL 2025 season for Lucknow Super Giants. He had expressed this desire in the last month. However, the management has not agreed to his desire and is looking to open with him.

Even before the last season, Rahul wanted to bat in the middle order to push for a middle-order spot in the Indian team. However, the team management did not agree due to the team composition and dynamics. He continued to open for the whole IPL 2024 season.

The reason behind Rahul's eagerness to bat in the middle order could be to get his place back in the Indian team. With India having too many options for the opening spot, Rahul might have sensed his options in the middle order.

KL Rahul - A capable middle-order batter

While KL Rahul is a capable opening batter, he is also a useful middle-order batter. His versatility makes him such a dynamic player for any team. He started his career while opening the batting.

But looking at the competition for spots in India's squad, he decided to give it a go in the middle order. Rahul was given the spot of No. 5 in India's ODI team and he received immediate success as well.

KL Rahul is not having a good phase in his career currently. He was recently dropped from India's Test team in favor of Sarfaraz Khan, who scored his maiden Test ton in Bengaluru.

Players who can be retained by LSG

According to the reports, he too wants to leave LSG, thus making it a mutual decision. If LSG does not retain Rahul, it could pave the way for them to retain players like Ravi Bishnoi, Mayank Yadav, Nicholas Pooran, Ayush Badoni, and Mohsin Khan.

He played as a wicketkeeper-batter and looked at ease while playing the middle overs. His gameplay against spin in the middle overs and at the death overs has been superb. Rahul had an excellent ODI World Cup 2023 campaign with the bat where India finished runners-up.