“Captaincy isn’t something that’s ever plagued him” - Jonty Rhodes on KL Rahul
Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) fielding coach Jonty Rhodes asserted that KL Rahul is someone who leads from the front, brushing aside talk that captaincy is affecting the senior batter.
Rahul registered his first fifty of IPL 2023 in the match against Punjab Kings (PBKS) on Saturday, April 15, at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow. He scored a fluent 74 off 56 balls after LSG lost the toss and were asked to bat first.
The Lucknow skipper’s impressive knock, though, went in vain as his team put up a disappointing score of 159/8 on the board. Punjab Kings chased down the total in 19.3 overs with two wickets in hand.
Claiming that captaincy isn’t affecting Rahul, Rhodes said at a post-match press conference:
“The captain is someone who likes to lead from the front. He has always been a successful, dominating batter in all the IPLs. Captaincy isn’t something that’s ever plagued him. Many great batters when given captaincy don’t quite handle it. He’s led from the front and I think it’s great to see that.”
Rahul hit eight fours and a six in his knock on Saturday against PBKS before being dismissed by left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh.
“He’s been batting in the nets superbly” - Jonty Rhodes on KL Rahul’s knock
Reflecting on the LSG skipper’s knock against PBKS, Rhodes stated that the franchise was confident of the batter coming good since he has been batting superbly in the nets. He said:
“When the captain’s scoring runs, the way that he plays he lays a really good platform for others to play around them. We always knew that he was just one knock away. He’s been batting in the nets superbly. He’s not the kind of player anybody worries about because we always know it’s literally one innings away.”
The South African legend, however, admitted that the skipper could have perhaps batted till the end since he was the set batter in the middle. Rhodes added:
“I think he himself will be satisfied with the way the knock turned out today but possibly could’ve batted deeper.”
Rahul was dismissed in the penultimate over of Lucknow’s innings as the batting side failed to get the final flourish. Punjab chased down 160 courtesy of impressive efforts from Sikandar Raza (57* off 41) and Shahrukh Khan (23* off 10).