Lucknow Super Giants ropes with India's World Cup-winning pacer Zaheer Khan as their mentor for the upcoming Indian Premier League 2025. The franchise had failed to perform in the last edition of the tournament since their mentor Gautam Gambhir joined the Kolkata Knight Riders. After the franchise's poor performance, there were doubts over the future of their captain KL Rahul with the Lucknow-based franchise.
KL Rahul was seen meeting with Sanjiv Goenka at his office earlier this week and since then several reports have claimed that LSG will retain him for the upcoming season but he will not lead the team. This comes after Goenka was seen having a heated chat with LSG captain Rahul last season after SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) took just 9.4 overs to chase down 166.
"Look, I've been meeting KL regularly over last three years. I'm a little surprised this meeting got so much attention. As I've said we have not taken any call till the retention rules are out," Goenka told reporters while unveiling Zaheer Khan as their team mentor.
Goenka said that KL Rahul is like a family to Lucknow Super Giants and he is an important part of the team.
"But KL has been an integral and important part of the LSG family since inception. He's played a very important role. He's like family and will be family." When asked about player retention and captaincy, Goenka said they are yet to arrive at a decision and are waiting for the BCCI to release the rules regarding retention.
"We have all of September, October and November to decide that. Let the policies be out. We have not even thought about the team going forward, whether retention will be three-four-five or six, we have no clue," Goenka said.
"Let us see, there is enough time, so bit by bit. Whatever decisions we take today will impact us for the medium term future, so it has to be very well thought out and considered.
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"There is enough time for it so it's too early. Let the BCCI announce the policy first, then there will be discussions." Asked whether they are going to press the "reset mode" under the newly-appointed mentor
Zaheer, he said: "You always try and improve and that is a constant endeavour. When you have a mega auction, there is bound to be a reset but you want to retain the core as much as possible you can. Let's see how it goes.
"One doesn't know which way what goes. Certainly the coach (Justin Langer) continues, Lance Kluesener (assistant coach), Jonty Rhodes (fielding coach) also continue. We are delighted for Morne Morkel and Gautam Gambhir, very pleased they have joined the national team," Goenka said.
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