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The 2024 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) saw the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) have their worst campaign till date. After making the playoffs in their first two editions in the league, the Super Giants missed out on qualification by a fair margin.
LSG's campaign was marred by the odd off-field controversy. For example, captain KL Rahul was seen having an animated chat with owner Sanjiv Goenka on the sidelines after LSG were soundly thrashed by the SunRisers Hyderabad, who went on to make the final.
There are many avenues Lucknow could explore ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auction. They have decisions to make in all departments - while they have enough talent in their ranks, they arguably do not have the kind of players with the star power to warrant shelling out mammoth amounts.
On that note, here are the three best IPL 2025 retention combinations for LSG.
#3 Retain the entire core - Pooran (18) + Rahul (18) + Stoinis (14) + Mayank (14) + Bishnoi (11) + Mohsin (4)
If LSG have considerable faith in the players who played for them in the last campaign, they could opt to use all six of their retention slots ahead of the 2025 auction. While choosing the uncapped player might be a fairly straightforward task, with Mohsin Khan and Ayush Badoni being the prime candidates, they could have interesting decisions to make with the five capped slots.
Nicholas Pooran is a non-negotiable for LSG. The West Indian is one of the best T20 batters in the world and needs to be kept on their books at all costs. KL Rahul, as an Indian captaincy option who can also keep wickets and man a variety of roles in the batting lineup, could be persisted with despite his inconsistency and intent issues in the IPL.
Pace-bowling all-rounders will be hard to come by, and Marcus Stoinis is the kind of player who has been useful for Lucknow over the years. The recently capped Mayank Yadav has virtually become a must-retain, given his express pace and promising control.
Ravi Bishnoi has also been an integral part of the franchise over the last three years. Given his immense potential and ability to bowl to both right-handers and left-handers at all stages of the innings, LSG could find him worthy enough to shell out a big amount.
#2 Get bold with it - Pooran (18) + Mayank (11) + Mohsin (4) + Badoni (4)
It's also arguable that the above price tags don't reflect the actual worth of these players. Prices might not be overly inflated in a mega auction, with plenty of names in the mix.
If the differences between LSG and Rahul are untenable, they could decide to part ways. Some reports suggest that the Karnataka keeper-batter would fancy a return to his home franchise, the Royal Challengers Bengaluru. That might not be the worst idea for the Super Giants, with Pooran capable of leading the team in the first retention slot.
Mayank's skills will be hard to find at the auction, meaning that he too could be retained. LSG could then decide to use two of their uncapped slots if they are feeling particularly brave. This would leave them with a decent amount of flexibility at the auction, with two RTM cards, and would also give them a fairly sizable purse advantage over the other teams.
#1 Retain just the essentials - Pooran (18) + Rahul (14) + Mayank (11)
The most likely and sensible course of action for LSG to take would be to retain only those who simply cannot be let go of. It seems like Pooran, Rahul and Mayank are those three names who cannot be replaced in any capacity at the IPL 2025 auction.
Lucknow could thus decide to retain just these three players and give themselves three RTM cards to work with at the auction. The uncapped players haven't set the IPL on fire lately, and the likes of Stoinis and Bishnoi might be available at cheaper prices.
