IPL 2025: Uncapped players like Mohsin Khan and Ayush Badoni set to be retained ahead of THIS IPL captain

All owners of the 10 Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises are busy finalising their choices for players to be retained for IPL 2025 mega auction next month. But there is one franchise is not keen on retaining it’s current skipper.

We are talking about Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), who are yet to make up their mind on whether they want to retain current skipper KL Rahul or not. According to a report in Indian Express newspaper, LSG management are looking to retain at least two ‘uncapped’ players in Delhi batter Ayush Badoni and pacer Mohsin Khan for UP apart from West Indies batter Nicholas Pooran.

But the Sanjiv Goenka-owned RPSG group are yet to decide whether they want to retain KL Rahul or not ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auction at the end of November. During the announcement of former India pacer Zaheer Khan as the new mentor of LSG, Goenka had said, “He (Rahul) is integral (to LSG). He has been here since the inception. For me personally and for (my son) Shashwat, he is like family.”

 

Indian Express Retention Update:-

MI:- RS, HP, SKY, JB
LSG:- Nicky P, Badoni, Mohsin
DC:- RP, Axar, Kuldeep
RR:- Sanju, Jaiswal, Parag
PBKS:- Ashutosh, Shashaank

The teams are also currently in talks with Jos Buttler(RR),KL Rahul(LSG), Arshdeep(PBKS) #IPLAuction #IPL2025

— Keshab Chandra (@Analyzer_Keshab) October 17, 2024

However, ties between KL Rahul and the LSG owners have been strained since last season. After a 10-wicket loss to Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL 2024, TV channels had caught Sanjiv Goenka aggressively gesturing towards KL Rahul, clearly not pleased by his captaincy of the display of the team.

Rahul was signed up by LSG when the team join IPL back in the 2022 for Rs 17 crore. Before this, the Karnataka batter was leading the Punjab Kings team and was getting a salary of Rs 11 crore.

In the IPL 2024 season, Rahul scored 520 runs in 14 matches at an average of 37.14 with 4 fifties but at a modest strike-rate of 136.13. In the IPL 2023 season, before getting injured, KL Rahul played in 9 matches but had a shocking strike-rate of 113.22.

Nicholas Pooran, on the other hand, has been a man on the move especially in T20 cricket. In IPL 2024, Pooran smashed 499 runs at an average of 62.38 with a strike-rate of 178.21. The West Indian southpaw has been sensational in other T20 leagues around the world including the recent Caribbean Premier League.

Badoni, led South Delhi Superstarz in the recently launched Delhi Premier League (DPL) T20 tournament. He was the 2nd highest run-getter in DPL T20 with 515 runs at an average of 64.38 with a strike-rate of 226.87 including a record-breaking 165.