“No, I mean, I think the decision has already been made and I don’t know what the comments are, but they must have come after the announcement,” Rahul said. star sports in an interview broadcast on November 12. “I felt like I wanted to start over, I wanted to explore my options and I wanted to go play where I could find some freedom and the team atmosphere was a lot more balanced.
“The pressure is already there in the IPL, it is very high. You see teams like Gujarat [Titans] and CSK [Chennai Super Kings] And all these teams, and you see that when they win or lose, they seem very balanced and the locker room is very calm. That is something very important for me as a player. I feel like if that happens, it will give all the players the best opportunity to perform.
“We tried it at LSG with Andy Flower. [head coach] and G.G. [Gautam Gambhir, mentor] first and then last year with [new head coach, Justin] Langer, we tried to create that in the locker room. I think there was a brilliant atmosphere in the dressing room. “I think sometimes you just need to walk away and find something good for yourself.”
Rahul led LSG to the playoffs in his first two seasons, in 2022 and 2023. When asked to look back on IPL 2024, Rahul suggested that external pressure could have contributed to their falling results. After starting with a loss to Rajasthan Royals, they won three games in a row before stuttering midway through the season. And then, they went into a downward spiral even as Rahul topped their charts with 520 runs at a strike rate of 136.12.
Despite those runs, there has been considerable speculation about Rahul’s future with the franchise since footage emerged of an animated chat between him and Goenka following LSG’s loss to Sunrisers Hyderabad towards the end of the league phase.
“There are always ups and downs,” he said. “You need to be able to control your nerves and be able to keep doing good performance after good performance. All the traveling, all the outside drama, the pressure, it’s all there every year. But somehow this season I felt like there was a lot more and somehow I think that affected the team and we couldn’t put in performances when it really mattered.
Looking ahead, Rahul said that IPL captaincy was not the most important thing for him at this stage, but playing in a “good environment” was. “I would never go and ask anyone,” Rahul said when asked how important the IPL captaincy was for him. “If you feel my leadership skills are good enough and you find something good in the way I play my cricket and the way I handle myself, the way I handle the team that I have captained in the last four or five years, and if you find it worthy, then of course I will be happy to do it.
“But it’s not something that is decisive for me. I just want to be part of a team that has a good environment. You feel loved, cared for and respected in that environment and everyone in that franchise has one goal to accomplish.” win the idea, then that fits perfectly.”
Even as rumors on social media about a possible reunion with Royal Challengers Bengaluru, his hometown team, gather steam, Rahul remained pragmatic about the possibility of playing anywhere. But it’s no secret which team has a weak corner. “What I enjoyed the most was playing for RCB. It is also my home,” he said. “You can spend a lot of time at home and I know the Chinnaswamys [Stadium] very good. I grew up playing on that field. So yeah, I really enjoyed my time at RCB.”
Would you love to return to RCB?
“Yes, of course, like I said, it’s kind of home and the people there know me as a local Kannada boy, and it would be nice to go back there and have a chance again. But yes, it’s an auction year, so you can go anywhere.”
