SRH vs LSG: KL Rahul under tremendous pressure, reveals Brett Lee as he slams batter's slow approach

Former Australia pacer and 2012 IPL winner with Kolkata Knight Riders - Brett Lee feels that Lucknow Super Giants captain KL Rahul is under immense pressure.

Brett Lee made these comments about KL Rahul after seeing him score 25 runs off 21 balls during Lucknow's unsuccessful attempt to chase down a mammoth 236. LSG had welcomed the Kolkata Knight Riders at the Ekana stadium last night for the reverse fixture. The visitors after posting that target, eventually claimed victory and completed the double over LSG with a 98-run victory.

What did Brett Lee say about KL Rahul?

While speaking to Jio Cinema after the Kolkata Knight Riders defeated Lucknow Super Giants, Brett Lee had quite a few things to say about KL Rahul. Lee started off by highlighting Rahul's slow approach and compared his 25-run knock to that of the KKR openers. He claimed that there was a contrasting difference between Rahul's and Salt-Narine's approach.

Brett Lee then admitted that KL Rahul played extremely slowly right from the beginning of the match, scoring runs at a run-a-ball pace. Rahul's slow approach in turn impacted the game totally for LSG as the following batters gave away their wicket quickly in trying to smear every single ball.

The former right-arm pacer then claimed that KL Rahul is under immense pressure all because of the fact that he has not been able to score runs in IPL 2024. If we talk about Rahul's figures this season, then he has scored 431 runs from 11 league matches so far at a strike rate of 141.31. He is averaging 39.18 and has 3 half-centuries to his name.

As a result of his poor form and slow approach, Rahul was not picked by the chief Indian selection committee for the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup 2024. Instead of his inclusion as the wicket-keeper batsman, the selectors went with Rajasthan Royals captain Sanju Samson and Delhi Capitals skipper Rishabh Pant in the 15-man squad.

"I think if you look at both opening batters from both sides, it's a complete contrast. KKR have got it right. They're out of the blocks quickly, they're scoring runs. And then you got KL Rahul on the other side, that's, you know, getting a run a ball and putting a lot of pressure on the back end."

"You know, we saw four games and I picked KL Rahul here, the first four games he played. His strike rate was 129, then he went to 150 and now he's come back and said, 'well, yeah, you know the bowlers have done a great job. I think there's a lot of pressure on him because he hasn't scored the runs he should be," Brett Lee said via Jio Cinema.

Rahul sheds light on the heavy 98-run loss

While speaking in the post-match interview, KL Rahul shed light on his team's shambolic 98-run loss. He claimed that LSG were poor across all departments and that there were quite too many runs on the board to score. "We didn't (hit our lengths on a consistent basis), just been a poor performance overall with bat, ball and in the field." - Rahul said.