"He went in such a zone where he was only trying to play 50 overs" - Shoaib Malik on KL Rahul's sluggish knock in World Cup final
Veteran Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Malik pointed out flaws in KL Rahul's innings during the World Cup final between India and Australia played at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday, November 19.
India lost to Australia by six wickets in the summit clash after dominating the campaign. Australia won the toss and bowled out the hosts for 240 on a dry wicket.
KL Rahul was India's top-scorer with 66 runs from 107 balls, though just one boundary came off his willow in the entire innings. Analyzing India's World Cup loss on A Sports' flagship show 'The Pavilion', Shoaib Malik commented:
"He (KL Rahul) has been taking a lot of responsibility when they lose early wickets. But if you see his innings today, that's not a KL Rahul innings. He went into such a zone where he was only trying to play 50 overs. He should have played his own game."
KL Rahul played 49 dot balls during his tepid innings while taking 52 singles and five doubles. Speaking on this approach, Malik said:
"If you are batting in tough conditions and you aren't able to find boundaries, at least you rotate the strike. That wasn't happening. There were a lot of dot balls."
"Was expecting today also that he would get a hundred" - Shoaib Malik on Virat Kohli
Indian batting mainstay Virat Kohli scored 54 off 63 balls before he was cleaned up by Australia captain Pat Cummins. Shoaib Malik expected the India No.3, who registered three centuries in the tournament, to add one more to his illustrious tally of 50 ODI centuries in the final.
"It was looking like that (Kohli would score another century). On a tough pitch, he had a strike rate of 85.71. We shouldn't forget that he is a top-scorer and was in his prime form," Malik said on Kohli.
"I was expecting today also that he would get a hundred after the way he was playing. Because of this on a tough pitch I was expecting a total of 270 at least, but that didn't happen," he added.
The former Pakistan captain also noted that Indian batters dismissed in single-figure scores should have added a bit to help the team post a competitive score.
"If Shubman Gill (4), Shreyas Iyer (4) and Ravindra Jadeja (9) would have scored in 20s then the total could be pushed to 270," Malik concluded.
Australia won their sixth World Cup title and also ended the streak of the tournament host lifting the title for the past three editions.