In the second ODI against Australia, KL Rahul had played a significant role with the bat. He came to bat at No. 5 after Shreyas Iyer. Taking the full charge of the game, Rahul slammed 80 runs off 50 balls. His contribution led India to set the target of 341. The right-hand batsman was happy with his knock as skipper Virat Kohli had also hailed Rahul’s show at Rajkot.
In the first ODI, Virat Kohli sacrificed his place to give KL Rahul the chance to bat at No. 3. This experiment failed badly as India went on to lose the series opener by 10 wickets.
Subsequently, Indian skipper, Kohli decided not to take the risk in the do-or-die match for India. In Rajkot, the aggressive leader Kohli came to bat at No. 3 while Rahul was demoted in the batting order.
Confident KL Rahul:
Kohli lost his wicket in 44th over on the ball of spinner Adam Zampa. But KL Rahul played an anchor’s role to keep the scoreboard ticking. The highlight of his inning was the eye-soothing maximum which he struck on the bowling of speedster Mitchell Starc. In total, he struck six fours and three sixes. However, in the last over of the game, he was run-out.
In the post-match conference, Rahul maintained that his skills have led him to bat at any order for the team. Further adding, he didn’t take too much pressure and just enjoyed the game in Rajkot.
“I get to learn so much about batting as an art when I get to bat at different positions, new ways to counter the bowlers, new ways to adjust to the situations, I don’t look at it is as pressure, just enjoy it,” said Rahul.
“It’s a great challenge, pretty confident about my skills. Any role (in the India team) is just a blessing, that’s how I look at it. I am more than willing to bat at any position for the team. It is a team game and anybody would do it for the team,” Rahul added.
KL Rahul’s preparation before the match:
Seeing Rahul’s performance in the last home seasons, it became a tough choice for Kohli to let the Karnataka batsman warm the bench. He gave the tough competition to the established openers; Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan.
Giving the staggering performance in the second ODI, Rahul showed his skill-set to be a middle-order batsman too.
Talking about his preparation, the right-hand batsman said that he spoke to other middle-order batsmen including Virat Kohli and watched videos of established middle-order batsmen like Kane Williamson, Steven Smith and AB de Villiers.
“I watched the videos of players like AB de Villiers, Steve Smith, and Kane Williamson. The only thing is I adjusted my game to it. My game reading has also become much better,” Rahul concluded.
Meanwhile, the three-match series decider will be held at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Sunday (January (19).