Photo by Deepak Malik / Sportzpics for BCCI
It was just a year and a half ago when KL Rahul was struggling to find a permanent spot in the Indian playing XI. He just seemed to be going in the way of so many other players who showed talent but couldn’t convert them into performance. But he has comeback stronger and strong enough to not only cement a permanent spot in the limited overs playing XI but also has become the designated wicket keeper of the team
Wicket keeping helps me to understand the pitch better-KL Rahul
The Kings XI Punjab skipper KL Rahul has said that staying behind the stumps for the 20 overs helped him to understand the pitch behavior and ultimately that showed on his fantastic match winning knock in the 1st T20I.
Here’s what KL Rahul said,
“I enjoy staying behind the stumps and it also gives me a great idea about how the pitch is playing, and I can pass on that message to the bowlers and the captains with field-sets and everything. As a keeper, that’s also your responsibility to stay active and pass the message on to your captain as to what lengths are better and what I feel we can do better.
As a batsman as well, after keeping for 20 overs, especially you get a fair idea on what are the good shots on this kind of wicket and so I’m enjoying the responsibility and so far so good for me.”
Playing first-class cricket helped me to regain the confidence-KL Rahul
The form of KL Rahul in red ball cricket dipped and as a result he was left out of the team in almost all the formats of the game but the dashing batsman didn’t gave up as he went back and scored heaps of runs in all the domestic tournament that he got a chance to play for Karnataka.
“You need some confidence and that doesn’t come in the nets or anywhere else. You need to be in the middle and get runs and that’s the only way that I could have got my confidence to go back, play some first-class cricket, less pressure and I could focus on myself, my skill and my cricket.
So, that’s the only thing that worked really well for me and obviously it helps that I got runs there as well and I could come back into the Indian team with runs behind me,” he added.