Exclusive: Lucknow Super Giants to release KL Rahul ahead of IPL mega auction | Cricket News – Times of India

Promising pacer Mayank Yadav to be among top 3 retentions for franchise
NEW DELHI: Lucknow Super Giants are all set to release KL Rahul for the IPL mega auction, it is learnt. Young pace sensation Mayank Yadav, on the other hand, will be among the top three retentions at the franchise, along with Nicholas Pooran and Ravi Bishnoi.
Rahul has been the captain of LSG in their first three seasons in the IPL but league sources said the team’s management is not happy with his strike rate.
“The LSG management, including mentor Zaheer Khan and coach Justin Langer, has analysed his stats and it has emerged that the team has almost lost all matches where KL has batted long and scored runs. That indicates that his strike rate doesn’t match the momentum of the game. With the Impact Player rule, the scores are getting higher. You can’t afford to have someone taking so much time at the top of the order,” IPL sources told TOI.

However, LSG has not ruled out bidding for him at the auction. The franchise may decide on the day of the auction how far they can go for Rahul. IPL sources also said the LSG team management feels that Mayank is one for the future and one shouldn’t be surprised if he is ahead of Bishnoi in the retention list.
“Mayank is LSG’s find. They invested in him when no one knew of him and he has shown what kind of impact he can have on a match,” IPL sources said, adding that LSG are trying to preserve as much of the purse as possible. That could imply Ayush Badoni and left-arm seamer Mohsin Khan being retained as uncapped players by the franchise.

Franchises wait on Delhi Capitals to take call on Rishabh Pant
In another interesting development, many franchises are waiting for Delhi Capitals to announce their retention list so that they can know how much they should spend on their retentions if Rishabh Pant is not retained by DC.
Franchises like LSG and Punjab Kings are very keen on having Pant as their captaincy candidate. There are a few others too, who may be lining up for Pant.

Recently, Capitals co-owner Parth Jindal had declared that Pant would be their top retention. The franchise, however, is taking its time to announce its list after major overhaul in the running of the operations, with the GMR group in charge.
The Capitals management wants to retain Pant but certain modalities still need to be worked out with the JSW and GMR splitting responsibilities for the IPL,