IPL 2025 is still at least 8 months away but the fight for the coveted trophy amongst franchises has already started. And no team would want to win the trophy more than the ever-present “Challengers”, RCB. Every year their fans dream of it being their year. But now with the recent reports flooding the internet about KL Rahul possibly returning to his hometown franchise, can their fortunes change? Well, they will certainly be hoping so!
According to reports on the internet, KL Rahul is likely to end his three-year association with Lucknow Super Giants and join Royal Challengers Bangaluru ahead of the IPL 2025. With similar reports about Rishabh Pant’s verbal alliance with CSK coming in yesterday, are we really in for a double-mega-switch ahead of the Mega Auction 4 months away?
If yes, it will be a great move for the Bengaluru franchise. With Faf Du Plessis’s ageing body in no condition of standing the chance to feature in RCB’s retention list, they had to find a captain who could preferably open their batting. Not only does KL Rahul fit into that criteria, but rather is one of the best at it. The Kannaddiga has a knack for scoring runs in the IPL season and has been doing so for quite some time and always manages to feature in the top 4-5 batters at the end of the season. For the last 3-4 years, he has played mostly in the UAE or on sluggish Lucknow pitches. Just imagine him opening 7 out of 14 matches on the flat batting-friendly Chinnaswamy pitches.
Another big plus of RCB’s pursuit of KL Rahul is that apart from taking over Faf’s opening and captaining responsibilities he is perfect for another role. Last season, Dinesh Kartik retired once and for all and the Wicketkeeper position for RCB is all but vacant. That practically means, that if the deal between RCB and KL Rahul goes through, the Red and Gold franchise will be killing not one, not two, but three birds with a single stone!
The possibilities are endless, though it’s hard to imagine KL Rahul getting the top retaining spot with Virat Kohli’s presence. RCB could probably have to rack their brains for the last two spots with 4 possible candidates for it. But that’s a nice headache to have. For Bengaluru fans though, the possibility of their home-boy KL Rahul walking out to bat with their adopted son Virat Kohli will be a heavenly sight to behold.
