Former Indian cricketer Ajit Agarkar opined that handing captaincy of Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) to KL Rahul had not pressurized him. Although KXIP has been knocked out of the tournament, Rahul is leading the run-gatherer table, scoring 670 runs in 14 matches.
His extraordinary performance has earned him a place in India’s squad across all the formats for the Australia tour. Moreover, he has been promoted to vice-captain position in the white-ball.
On being asked if he saw KL Rahul captaining India in the future, Ajit Agarkar said that the national selectors’ decision to appoint him as the vice-captain for the tour to Australia does give that indication.
“The way the selection has happened it shows that the selectors are thinking about him like that. The biggest thing has been that his form has not been impacted by captaincy,” Ajit Agarkar said.
Ajit Agarkar hails KL Rahul for his determination:
Agarkar added that a high-pressure tournament like IPL could damage any new young captain’s performance, but this has not been the case with KL Rahul. The wicketkeeper-batsman has been leading the pack while also getting runs for them on every occasion.
“It is a very high pressure tournament, when you are a young captain leading for the first time and don’t have that much experience, then your form can suffer and your game can go down, but that has not happened with him,” Ajit Agarkar further stated.
“He has made the same runs and batted in a similar fashion. So that is a big positive for any player, which means he is handling pressure very well,” he added.
KL Rahul’s prolific performance has also earned him a comeback call in the Test team. He has not played in the longest format of the game since September last year.