New Delhi, Jan 18 (IANS): IPL franchise Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) is likely to announce its new captain ahead of the 2025 season when it holds a special press conference at the RPSG headquarters in Kolkata on Monday.

But the franchise, in its official communication, didn’t state the nature of the topics of the press conference, which is expected to be addressed by Sanjiv Goenka, the LSG principal owner and Chairman of the RPSG Group.

After making the playoffs in the IPL 2022 and 2023 seasons, LSG missed the playoffs for the first time in 2024, as they finished seventh on the points table with a poor net run rate.

Some franchise officials IANS spoke to have said either of the two things or both could happen in Monday’s press conference: the announcement of a new LSG captain or unveiling of the franchise’s new jersey, considering that some players of the team are likely to be in attendance.

In the IPL mega auction in Jeddah last year, LSG left everyone astonished by roping in India wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant for Rs 27 crore, making him the most expensive player ever sold at an IPL auction. With KL Rahul, their captain since the 2022 season, leaving the franchise ahead of the auction and moving to Delhi Capitals, LSG is highly expected to name Pant as their new captain.

Pant had been DC’s captain from 2021 to 2024 editions of the IPL, barring the 2023 season, which he missed due to recovery from various injuries sustained in a car accident in December 2022. But ahead of the retention deadline, he was released by DC, ending his nine-year association with them and was picked up by LSG in the mega auction.

Other captaincy candidates which LSG have in their team are swashbuckling West Indies batter Nicholas Pooran, who was the side’s top retained player for Rs 21 crore and even captained them once in Rahul’s place, as well as South Africa T20I captain Aiden Markram and Australia T20I skipper Mitchell Marsh.

In a previous press conference in August last year, LSG unveiled former India left-arm fast-bowler Zaheer Khan as the side’s new mentor. Zaheer was previously associated with Mumbai Indians from 2018 to 2022 as director of cricket and head of global development.