India batting coach Vikram Rathour backed KL Rahul, calling him one of the main players in the team. He also termed the Indian team’s bench strength a ‘good problem’, refuting the fact that it builds insecurity to the players in the playing XI.
India’s dismal batting performance with Virat Kohli being the only exception, let them down in the third T20I against England, as the visitors took a 2-1 lead in the five-match series. Opening the innings, KL Rahul was bowled for a duck for the third time in four T20I innings as he failed to change the scoreboard.
After India’s defeat, skipper Kohli in the post-match presentation backed the opener and said ” KL Rahul will get back in form”. Meanwhile Batting coach Vikram Rathore agreed with Kohli statements in the press conference.
“The bench strength doesn’t make the players in the XI insecure. As team management, it’s our role to build that confidence. Every cricketer can go through a lean phase. If you are talking about KL Rahul, he has done so well for us in the past year and therefore, a couple of failures doesn’t change the fact. He is one of our main players,” said Vikram Rathour.
“Anybody can have a lean phase and KL has been our best batsman in the T20 format. He is averaging 40 plus with a strike rate of 145 and 3 failures doesn’t change the fact that he is the best batsman we have in this format,” added Vikram Rathour, who played 13 internationals for India between 1996 and 1997.
Rahul has not played any competitive cricket since the limited-overs leg of the Australia tour last year. While he was in the Test team, practicing in the nets, the lack of batting was evident in his rusty movement.
Rathour agreed that rustiness could be a reason and it would take only one good shot to get back for the right-hander.
“I agree they do tend to get rusty when they are sitting out but the only thing we can do is to provide them practice. They are having a lot of net sessions and even on the middle (centre strips),” Rathour said.
“That’s all they can do and we can just hope that one innings or one shot and they will be back in form. People like KL Rahul,” he added.
KL Rahul is India’s highest-ranked T20I batsman as he is placed third in the ICC T20I Batsman’s Rankings . Apart from winning the Orange Cap in the 2020 season of IPL, he also ended the year as the second-highest run-scorer in T20Is.
