K.L. Rahul Discusses His Function Within One-Day International Cricket, Beginning With “Team Has Asked Me To…”

In one-day internationals moving forward, the Indian team management, which is headed by Rahul Dravid, has instructed KL Rahul to be “ready to keep wickets and bat in middle-order,” as the Indian vice-captain said on Sunday. Dravid is the captain of the Indian squad.

Back in 2021, Rahul occasionally played wicketkeeper and batted in the middle order. In the first one-day international against Bangladesh, in addition to making 73 runs, he donned the large gloves and maintained wickets.

This came about when the medical staff recommended that Rishabh Pant sit out the One-Day International series.

Instead of losing by one wicket, India only lost by one run because Rahul misplayed an aerial catch by the Player of the Match, Mehidy Hasan Miraj, which could have guaranteed victory for India.

“We haven’t played a lot of one-day international matches in the recent 8-9 months, but if you look in 2020-21, I have kept wickets, and I have batted at Nos. 4 and 5, respectively.”

When asked about Pant’s absence, KL Rahul gave a harsh response when asked about his position in white-ball cricket because he had previously played it. “This is the role that the team has asked me to be ready for as I have done it before,”

In spite of the fact that Rahul is a member of the team management in his capacity as vice captain, he did not specify whether Pant was taken out of the game to control his workload or because of a niggling injury.

“When it comes to Rishabh, to be quite honest, I do not know for certain, as I just discovered today that he is going to be released. The medical team will be in a better position to address those inquiries and provide information regarding the reasons.

KL Rahul was of the opinion that neither the batsmen nor the bowlers ought to be held accountable for this loss.

“You’ve got to be kidding me. You must always be prepared for the unexpected. As long as people continue to play cricket, incidents of this nature will continue to take place.

They put up a valiant effort right up until the end, despite a few dropped catches and that impressive innings from Mehidy. After scoring runs on such a challenging wicket, he felt a sense of personal accomplishment.

“It was one of those days where it appeared as though I was timing the ball better,” he said (than others). “Fortuitously, the shots I selected got to the boundary, and every choice that I selected worked out in my favour,” he remarked.

As a batter, such innings provide you a sense of fulfilment since you are required to rise to the occasion and contribute to the team’s success. In a perfect world, we should have been able to score 40 more runs. If I had batted to the end, or even if I could have batted until the 40th over, I could have scored 230–240 runs.