"It was a good ride, thank you for the love" - KL Rahul bids adieu to Punjab Kings

KL Rahul has bid adieu to his former IPL franchise Punjab Kings on social media on Wednesday. All the IPL franchises announced their retention list for next season on November 30, 2021.

The former Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) star decided to part ways with the Punjab Kings after the 2021 IPL. In an Instagram post, KL Rahul wrote:

"It was a good ride, thank you for the love ❤️ see u on the other side 🙌🏻 @punjabkingsipl."

Here's KL Rahul's Instagram post:

As per reports in the Times of India, he could possibly play for the new Lucknow-based franchise in the upcoming season and could even captain them.

KL Rahul, who earlier represented the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and the RCB in the IPL, was bought by the Punjab Kings in the 2018 IPL auction for ₹11 crores.

Over the last four years, he has been Punjab's best player with the bat. He scored 659 runs in 14 games in 2018 and followed it up with tournament aggregates of 593, 670 and 626 runs in 2019, 2020 and 2021 respectively. He also won the Orange Cap in 2020.

"Punjab Kings wanted to retain KL Rahul" - Anil Kumble

Punjab Kings head coach Anil Kumble recently revealed that the franchise wanted to retain KL Rahul for the upcoming season. The former leg-spinner explained that Rahul was chosen to lead the side keeping long-term prospects in mind.

However, the 29-year-old decided to go into auction and Kumble said that the franchise respect the player's decision.

“Of course, the major challenge for us was Rahul. Obviously, we wanted to retain him. That’s one of the reasons we chose him as captain 2 years ago, so he could be the core of the team. But he decided to go into the auction, we respect that decision. It’s the players’ prerogative,” Anil Kumble said.

KL Rahul was handed the Punjab Kings captaincy from the 2020 IPL season. He took over from Ravichandran Ashwin. Rahul led the team in 27 games and managed to end up on the winning side on 11 occasions. The side lost 14 games under him. In the two games that went into the Super Over, PBKS won one and lost another under Rahul.