Hopefully, the bogey incident between the 2024 LSG skipper KL Rahul and the owner Sanjiv Goenka won't be repeated in 2025, as soon as Rishabh Pant takes charge. When fans have already started making memes saying "dekh bhai, maana salary acchi hey, par work culture thoda toxic hey (see, salary might be better, but the work culture is toxic), Sanjiv Goyenka's comment somehow indicated similar things. Post-auction, the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) owner, despite showing satisfaction, clarified that "27 was slightly up" for Rishabh. Rishabh Pant, who made a comeback in his international cricket one and a half years after the horrible car accident, is in hot form, being the top scorer for India in the home Test series against New Zealand. It was previously guessed that he would go big in the auction. Former players like Irfan Pathan claimed that he would break Mitchell Starc's record of being the costliest buy in IPL history. And it happened likewise. Initially LSG and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) fought for him, but as the price started increasing, RCB backed off. Sunrisers Hyderabad too came later, but a determined LSG fought till the end. As the price neared Rs 20 crore, SRH stepped aback. Delhi Capital later used their RTM card, but then LSG, took one shot, increasing the price to 27 crore, shutting up DC. Read: Rishabh Pant Sold to LSG for INR 27 Cr, Breaks Cummins' Record Speaking to ESPNCricinfo, Shashwat made their plan clear. "No matter how much you plan, things do not always work out like that. This (getting Pant for 27 crore) was very well to our plan. It was not really a magic number, we just wanted a number so that the RTM does not get exercised." However, there seemed to have some disappointment in the owner's tone as he said, "Well, this was part of our plan. Rishabh was on the list, we had kept Rs crore for him. 27 was slightly up. But, we are very happy that we have him. He is an outstanding player, a match-winner. Fans should be very very happy to have him as part of LSG." KL Rahul incident with LSG Rahul's stint with his last team, Lucknow Super Giants, has not been a cordial one, despite leading LSG to playoff appearances in their first two IPL seasons, 2022 and 2023. However, the team ended in seventh place in 2024, also having an animated chat with owner Sanjiv Goenka (after a defeat against Sunrisers Hyderabad) as the major highlight of their campaign. Even though Rahul stayed silent earlier but opened up later, before the 2025 auction, condeming it as not "the nicest thing to be part of or something that anyone wants to see on the cricket field." LSG too, decided to move on without Rahul. Despite his team's challenges, Rahul had an impressive individual performance in IPL 2024, scoring 520 runs at a strike rate of 136.12.