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KL Rahul's exit from Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 mega auction was followed up by comments from LSG owner Sanjiv Goenka stating that he wants players who put the team before personal milestones. Now, after buying KL Rahul for INR 14 crore in the auction, Delhi Capitals (DC) co-owner Parth Jindal has stated that the franchise would shower him with the "love and respect he deserves". Several social media handles are seeing this as an indirect jab at someone.
"I have known KL (Rahul) personally for a long time and he is a good friend of mine. He thrives with love and respect and I am going to give him the love and respect he deserves," said Jindal, in an interview to RevSportz.
"I believe a class player is always a class player... I hope he thrives in our atmosphere and does it for Delhi, wins an IPL," Jindal further said.
Rahul had parted ways with LSG after three years as captain of the franchise. LSG failed to qualify for the playoffs in IPL 2024, with an animated chat between Goenka and Rahul making headlines after an embarrassing loss to Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH).
Jindal candidly confessed that both Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer were also on DC's radar due to them coming first in the auction, and that they had to resort to signing Rahul once they couldn't get both Pant and Iyer.
"When we were discussing our auction strategy, the first lot was Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer. Obviously, we thought that if we can get one of those players, one of them being the Indian marquee batter, then we will not have the budget for KL. But we lost both and went to the auction knowing that we might lose both because Punjab, LSG or RCB had more money than us. Then, who is the next-best batter? KL Rahul was right up there," Jindal said.
Rahul is also the favourite to become DC's new captain, although the likes of Axar Patel and Faf du Plessis may be in the running.