The LSG owner Sanjiv Goenka has given an indirect message to LSG captain KL Rahul, by mentioning his time with Rising Pune Supergiants, MS Dhoni and Steve Smith. He blamed KL Rahul and the team management for LSG’s poor decision-making in IPL 2024.
Making their debut in the 2022 season, LSG made it to playoffs in the first two seasons but slipped to the seventh spot in the last edition which made doubts of KL Rahul’s release from the franchise.
Goenka and Rahul had a few meetings since then, but no decision has been made til now. In between Zaheer Khan is set to join LSG for the mentor role. The former Indian pacer will take over the position left open by Gautam Gambhir ahead of IPL 2024.
Goenka felt that LSG lacks an Indian coach like Gambhir to help the side make crucial calls in certain situations.
“Last year, I felt that an Indian mind, you can call him a mentor or anything, who has that fierce desire to win, was lacking a bit. Zaheer, even when he was a player, he was very determined to win. That was his only aim. I want that,” said Goenka.
A video shows his discussion with captain KL Rahul following LSG’s defeat to SRH this year. It was revealed that Goenka dropped hints on dissatisfaction with the team management’s reasoning behind their poor show in the 17th edition.
“I am not satisfied if someone comes and tells me we played badly today. Then, repeats the same thing the next two days. So I will ask him, ‘Why?’ One player can be off-form, but XI players cannot be off-form every day. The decision-making role that Zaheer can play. The role that Gautam played was lacking last season. So my expectation from Zaheer is to work on that decision-making,” he said.
Goenka owned an IPL team before LSG as they owned RPS in IPL 2016 and 2017 when BCCI wanted two new franchises for two years to replace Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings.
MS Dhoni led RPS in the IPL 2016 and the franchise named Smith as the captain. RPS reached the final of IPL 2017 but failed to chase down 130 against Mumba Indians.
Goenka said it was due to inexperience as a team. “The Super Giants family has been in the IPL for five years. Two of those were with Pune, and three were with Lucknow. When we reached the finals with Pune, it was a new and inexperienced team. You leave out Steve Smith and MS Dhoni, we didn’t have much experience in the team,” he said.
“We were about to win the final, but due to our lack of experience, we lost. So making the right calls in those crunch moments is key.”
Goenka’s no experience in the team, barring Dhoni and Smith, however, is not true as RPS had the likes of Ajinkya Rahane, Manoj Tiwary, Dan Christian, and Jaydev Unadkat in their ranks in the final.
“Mumbai have a habit of winning. Everyone should emulate their never-say-die attitude. It was Pune’s match to win but they lost it by themselves because of the pressure applied by Mumbai. This attitude needs to be there in Lucknow. Otherwise, we would never win. We have to be confident in ourselves,” he said.
