LSG Owner’s Statement After KL Rahul’s Release : ‘Players Who Put Team Before Personal Goals Were Retained’ – News18

Last Updated:October 31, 2024, 20:10 IST

The franchise on Thursday revealed its retention, skipping Rahul and keeping six players, namely Nicholas Pooran, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohsin Khan, Ayush Badoni and Mayank Yadav.

KL Rahul has parted ways with the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) after leading it for two years since its inception in the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2022. The franchise on Thursday revealed its retention, skipping Rahul and keeping six players, namely Nicholas Pooran, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohsin Khan, Ayush Badoni and Mayank Yadav.

Speaking with Star Sports after the retentions were announced, LSG owner Sanjeev Goenka said the easiest retention for the franchise was Nicholas Pooran.

“We retained our first retention, which was an automatic choice, and it happened within like when the think tank deliberated, it happened within like less than two minutes and that was Nicholas Pooran,” Goenka said in a video shared by Star Sports on X.

“We’ve had two other capped retentions and that is Ravi Bishnoi and Mayank Yadav. In addition to that, we have two uncapped retentions, that’s Mohsin Khan and Ayush Badoni,” he added.

The LSG owner highlighted that the team management stuck to the formula of choosing the players who keep the team ahead of their milestones and have a desire to win.

“It was a process that Zaheer Khan, Justin Langer, the analyst and the CEO engaged in for a while. And then we all had a joint discussion and that discussion was not too long. It was a very simple mindset to go in for players who have a mindset to win, who put the team before their personal goals and personal aspiration,” Goenka said.

The franchise retained former West Indies captain Nicholas Pooran for INR 12 crore as their first retention. Speaking behind keeping Pooran as their first player, Goenka said, “He always that that was the obvious choice for player number one and that was a no-brainer as far as everybody in the think tank was concerned and we have retained him at 12 crores and these two other cap players, Ravi and Mayank are both at 11 crores.”