As India takes on Australia in the three-match T20I series, which starts in Mohali on Tuesday, much of the focus would be on how KL Rahul performs bat in hand. In the recently concluded Asian Cup, he managed to score 132 points in five games. However, with Virat Kohli scoring a century in the Super 4 match against Afghanistan, there have been calls to open the battle with Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. However, on Sunday skipper Rohit confirmed that KL Rahul would open the battle in the T20 World Cup with Kohli as the third or reserve opener.
When talking about the shortest format of the game, KL Rahul’s strike rate has always been a point of contention. In 61 T20Is he has played so far, the right-handed batter has a strike rate of 140.91. However, there have been times when the batter found it difficult, the match against Hong Kong in the Asian Cup, where he scored 36 runs off 39 balls.
Rahul was asked about this matter ahead of India’s first T20I against Australia in Mohali and he spoke extensively on the matter.
“Look, clearly something that every player wants to work on. Nobody is perfect, everyone is working towards something, of course the strike rates are generally taken. You never see when a batter has played a certain strike rate, whether it it was important for him to play at a stroke rate of 200 or whether the team could still have won if he played 120-130. These are the things that nobody analyzes.”
“Yeah, it’s something I’m working on, the roles that have been defined for each player in the last 10-12 months have been very clear, everyone is working towards it. And I’m just working on how I can improve myself as a lead-off hitter and how I can have an impact for my team when I go to bat,” he added.
Continuing on the same topic, Rahul said: “There can be many things to criticize. But the most important thing for a player is what his captain, coach and team-mates think of him in the dressing room. Only we know what role that is. every player. Everyone tries to give their best, but not everyone can succeed in every game. It’s the kind of environment we’ve created where players aren’t afraid to make mistakes or fail.”
promoted
“Anyone can criticize, but we criticize ourselves more than all of you because we represent our country, you want to win matches for your country and we want to win the World Cup. All these things are on our minds, if we don’t do it right, it hurts us too what happens in our group thats what is important the captain and coach always encourage players not only when they do well but also when they are going through a tough time which is what a player wants see, what each individual would like to see, a little support, a little care when someone is down,” he added.
India squad for Australia series: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul (vice captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, R. Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar Harshal Patel, Deepak Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav.
Topics mentioned in this article