KL Rahul has been in excellent form with the bat since his comeback from a long injury layoff at the Asia Cup earlier this year.
He scored a century against Pakistan on international comeback after being laid low by a thigh injury which he picked up during IPL 2023. Since then, he’s regularly peeled off impressive numbers with the bat, providing a reliable presence in India’s middle order that has contributed immensely to their unbeaten run to the semis at the 2023 ODI World Cup.
However, another aspect of Rahul has stood out during the ODI showpiece – his ability to take correct Decision Review System (DRS) calls.
There have been occasions when India captain Rohit Sharma has gone for reviews with Rahul not in agreement and has been vindicated.
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Then there have been times when Rahul has confidently asked for reviews and they’ve turned out to be successful ones even when not many on the field seemed to be confident about going upstairs.
The wicketkeeper-batter admitted while he enjoys batting, the job behind the stumps sometimes can become a challenging task and also pointed out how the team doesn’t credit him enough for his accurate DRS calls.
“It (wicketkeeping) gets difficult sometimes, but I enjoy being involved in the game, the bowlers have challenged me during DRS calls, but they don’t give me enough credit,” Rahul told Ian Smith during a chat after the end of India’s innings against Netherlands on Sunday.
Rahul produced a stellar show with the bat, breaking the record for the fastest world cup century by an India batter, taking just 62 deliveries to get to three figures against the Netherlands on Sunday.
“Not gotten a lot of time (to bat) in the last two games, so it was nice to get some time today,” Rahul said.
“Batting at five, it’s important to get that confidence, it was a good knock. Getting that confidence to hit sixes towards the end was important,” he added.
Rahul reached his half-century off 40 deliveries and then made quite an acceleration to get to his next 50 in just 23 deliveries.
He was on 89 off 60 when the final over of India innings began and then belted two sixes in a row to get to the milestone.
“It’s not rocket science, got to go hard in the last 10 overs. Tried to get as many runs as possible, that was the plan, the ball gets softer, so hitting sixes at the back end becomes difficult,” Rahul said.
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