Almost 48 hours before unveiling their support staff in the city, Lucknow Super Giants owner Sanjiv Goenka met the franchise’s captain KL Rahul in his office on Judges Court Road, Alipore, on Monday morning.
The meeting lasted for “three hours”, sources confirmed to The Telegraph.
Goenka is learnt to have expressed the franchise’s keenness to retain the India batter-wicketkeeper when the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) comes out with its retention policy ahead of the mega auction.
Speculation over Rahul’s potential return to Royal Challengers Bengaluru have been rife on social media though a lot will depend on the dynamics of the auction if he’s not retained by LSG.
But Monday’s meeting is likely to put an end to such talk.
This was also the first formal meeting between the two since the LSG owner invited Rahul for dinner at his New Delhi residence days after they were seen having an animated chat at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad following Lucknow’s 10-wicket loss to Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL 2024.
It won’t come as a surprise if LSG decide to retain only Rahul, their captain for the last three seasons, and Ravi Bishnoi from their last season’s squad.
LSG are possibly the first franchise to have a formal discussion about the composition of the squad with their captain.
The BCCI is likely to come out with their retention policy in the first week of September. It could vary between 4-6 players per franchise besides the option of Right to Match cards.
LSG have planned a grand unveiling of Zaheer Khan as part of their support staff on Wednesday afternoon. Zaheer is set to take over as mentor, a position left vacant by the departure of Gautam Gambhir.
Zaheer was until recently the head of global development at Mumbai Indians.
Justin Langer, who replaced Andy Flower as head coach last season, currently heads their coaching staff with Lance Klusener and Adam Voges as his assistants.
They failed to make the playoffs last season after securing top-four berths in their first two seasons.
Rahul will play in the Duleep Trophy in Bengaluru, where he will represent
Team A led by Shubman Gill, before the Test series versus Bangladesh.
