KL Rahul is the newly fond wicketkeeper for the Indian team though he has donned glove in IPL and for Karnataka team. After MS Dhoni went under sabbatical, Rishabh Pant was given a chance who failed to impress, but Rahul took the role seriously and has been donning the glove in white-ball cricket in the recent past. The Karnataka player has revealed that it is not an easy task to replace Dhoni as a wicketkeeper because of the baggage of expectations.
Pant was always under scrutiny because he was the replacement of the former Indian captain in the Indian team. Thus, the youngster went under a lot of pressure, and subsequently, his performance went down.
Rahul got the opportunity to don the glove after Pant suffered from an injury during the Australia series earlier this year. The 27-year old has taken up the responsibility very well.
Fumbling can make people feel that you can’t replace MS Dhoni: KL Rahul
In the recent interview, Rahul revealed that when he first time donned the glove for the national side, there was a lot of pressure on him. He said that people were ready to point the fingers that he can not be Dhoni’s replacement.
“I was nervous when I was doing it for India because of the crowd pressure. If you fumble, people feel that you cannot replace MS Dhoni. The pressure of replacing a legendary wicket-keeper like MSD was immense as it involved people accepting someone else behind the stumps,” Rahul told Star sports on its show ‘Cricket Connected’.
I am always in touch with wicket-keeping: KL Rahul
“People who follow cricket know that I haven’t been away from wicket-keeping for too long as I donned the gloves in the IPL and every time I played for Karnataka,” the 28-year-old said.
“I am always in touch with wicket-keeping but I am also somebody who is more than willing to take up the role if the team needs me to,” he stressed.
Rahul first timed donned the glove in the T20Is against New Zealand. In that series, he was the highest scorer and was also adjudged with the man of the series.