During a discussion on “Match Center Live” on JioCinema and Sports18 on Friday, India batsman KL Rahul discussed his innings at the conclusion of Day 2 of the First Test against England in Hyderabad.
Regarding losing out on a century: “I’ll take the 86 because I could have won on zero.” Perhaps when I show up tomorrow, I’ll feel like I missed something amazing. However, I relished my position in the center today. We saw England play yesterday, and it seemed to me that you had to create some opportunities and attempt to get the bowlers off their line and length rather than just waiting for the loose balls to come. I was trying to find ways to score runs. If the bowlers bowled there, I was ready to take my chances and had a couple strokes in mind.
“I wanted to see where I could get runs,” he said of his strategy. When I spoke with Rohit early in the morning, he informed me that you can’t just walk out and start hitting shots since the wicket is a little slow. I simply allowed myself some time, and after I started a few shots, my sole concern was how I could score runs.
When discussing KL Rahul batting, legendary Indian cricketer Zaheer Khan said: “If we look at Rahul’s career, he has had a lot of injury concerns.” He has occasionally been hurt when playing at his best, which has prevented him from taking advantage of the form—something that is essential in international cricket. However, given his recent performance in the SA series and his great World Cup campaign, we may argue that KL Rahul has evolved into a 2.0 version of himself.
“If we look at his batting, he attempted the sweep shot only four times, whereas most of the English batsmen played the sweep,” said former England cricketer Owais Shah in an analysis of KL Rahul batting. He used a straight bat during play, hitting straight-bat singles and boundaries.
Although many believe that we shouldn’t play KL Rahul, I think he is an excellent batsman and ought to be used frequently.
Former India captain Anil Kumble discussed the lead that his country would like to take, saying, “I think these two batters (Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja) will look to stretch the lead to 250.” They’re both strong hitters and have had a successful start. Thus, I believe that they would be searching for a lead of 245-250.