Why does India's stand-in skipper KL Rahul's bat has no Sponsor Sticker ?

In what is being seen as a very uncommon sight, Indian cricket team's stand-in skipper for the 2nd Test match against South Africa, KL Rahul has walked into the field with not sponsor on his bat.

KL Rahul is undoubtedly is not only India's, but also one of the top batsman in the World currently. Rahul has taken huge strides in his career in the recent couple of months or a year or so.

KL Rahul, a name, which was not even considered for the Test series, took up the opportunity with both hands when he got to play for the Indian team. And now on today, January the 3rd, 2022, Rahul has taken the field today as the Indian team's Test skipper in place of Virat Kohli, who has been left out for the match due to a back injury.

However, in what is a very unforeseen incident, the Indian skipper walked onto the pitch with no bat sponsor. Note that Rahul had a sponsorship deal with Meerut based manufacturer SG (Sanspareils Greenlands).

However, no logo was seen on Rahul's bat when he took the field, even he still had SG logo on his batting gloves.

No sponsor in the bat of KL Rahul. pic.twitter.com/BKufyVZzCf

— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) January 3, 2022

With now official announcement regarding any parties, it can be assumed that the bat sponsorship deal with SG may have ended and thus could be the reason that KL Rahul has not walked onto the pitch with SG logo on his bat.

Meanwhile talking about the match. KL Rahul won the toss on his first outing as India's Test skipper. Batting first, both Rahul and Mayank Agarwal gave India a good start before Mayank was dismissed for 26 runs. That was followed by 2 quick wickets of Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane.

The boys did try to recover from that position with KL Rahul scoring a fifty, before he was also dismissed by Marco Jansen. India now finds themselves 5 wickets down for 146 runs at the time of tea on Day 1.