Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra said that the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) should retain KL Rahul before the IPL 2025 auction only if he is willing to stay back. He further added that it’s difficult to find a captain and a quality player like him. However, LSG finished seventh in IPL 2024 after reaching the playoffs in the last two seasons of the tournament. Although Rahul scored 520 runs at an average of 37.14 in 14 innings, many questioned his poor strike rate at times.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra said, “Nicholas Pooran should be retained in my opinion. KL Rahul should be retained if he wants to be retained because you want a captain and you won’t get an Indian player of that quality. Marcus Stoinis is in the maybe or maybe not category. If he is good, he is very, very good, but the good days are often fewer than bad days. So that is a concern. You want more good days,” Chopra explained.
However, Chopra wasn’t convinced whether Marcus Stoinis should be retained. Meanwhile, Nicholas Pooran smashed 499 runs at an excellent strike rate of 178.21 in 14 innings as well. Stoinis aggregated 388 runs at a strike rate of 147.52 in 14 matches and picked up four wickets only.
“I won’t want to retain anyone apart from Ravi Bishnoi in bowling. If I am getting Mayank Yadav in the uncapped category for three to four crores, I might retain him, but I will let everyone else go. I will also let Krunal Pandya go. I will not retain anyone. I will say that I will start afresh. I will let Quinton de Kock, Kyle Mayers and Ashton Turner go because I feel it’s time to make a team with more specialists because bits and pieces won’t work at their ground. Players who play proper cricket, who can hit sixes and bowl well with the big side boundaries, will work here. I will be tempted to press the reboot button,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
