KL Rahul has to hit back form now without any further Delay
KL Rahul’s performances in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2022 are something to ponder about. KL Rahul has to hit back form now without any further Delay.
He’s made 9 against The Netherlands and 4 against India’s archrivals, Pakistan.
As a matter of fact, if you were a certain Rohit Sharma, you’d be concerned about India’s opening batter, who by the way, is also the foil to his captain.
Though, with how much success is Rahul playing that role?
On another line of thought, perhaps it makes sense as to why KL Rahul has made the runs he’s made, rather the lack of runs in this situation.
Where the 2022 season is concerned, then the 30-year-old bat has made just 319 runs from 12 T20 internationals.
There are good patches that batsmen hit, and there are purple patches. But what KL Rahul has encountered in 2022, which is still not over, is the lowest ebb of his T20I career.
Is this even serious? If so, how’s that?
Despite getting a chance to whack the white ball on no fewer than twelve occasions, KL Rahul’s 2022 strike rate is 124.
It’s a pity for the simple reason that this is the lowest that Rahul’s managed in a career that began in 2016, the year most synonymous with his maiden century: the unbeaten 110 against the West Indies.
Make no mistake Rahul’s smashed four fifties in twelve T20I outings this year, which doing basic math suggests is a half-century in every three outings.
He’s been scoring fifties at that very rate in the past three calendar years where it comes to the game’s briefest format, which goes to suggest a certain level of run-scoring we’ve come to associate with the Karnataka-man.
It’s just that in 2022, he’s not really been his usual attacking or consistent self.
And that’s come to hurt the team or if it must be said, then it hasn’t added a bit to the team’s cause.
For instance, would India have been in the contest, let alone winning the game against Pakistan if Virat Kohli have not played that magical inning?
Didn’t India need the usually elegant and mostly destructive Rahul from up top?
But where was the right-hander when the team needed it the most, it being arguably the most sought-after contest, as one would describe?
Truth be told, Rahul would’ve kicked himself in the gut in the dressing room upon looking at the bizarre manner in which he got out against Pakistan.
For a player of his redoubtable class, showing a sense of indecisiveness as suggested in the manner of his dismissal was a letdown.
But do you know what would be an even greater letdown? It would be Rahul failing again on Sunday, in a very important contest against South Africa.
For a second leave aside the value of the game for the Proteas, who must not lose on October 30.
Would India digest a match lost to the very side that it has failed to get the better off, especially in its own conditions in T20 internationals?
By every regard and sense possible KL Rahul must come good. For the time is now. Moreover, we are aware of the basic truth that few in the white-ball game can ally elegance and timing with an almost enigmatic ease as Lokesh Rahul.
What’s also true is that few sights in world cricket are as engaging as seeing Rahul time the cricket ball as good as he does.
May that happen in the next few hours for few other sights would matter more, especially to the man himself.
What do you reckon?
