Know How To Build My Innings Now: KL Rahul

Karnataka batsman KL Rahul has enjoyed a fruitful few months in limited-overs cricket. He replaced Shikhar Dhawan in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 and scored 361 runs which included a century and two fifties. Post that; Rahul also impressed in the ODI and the T20I series against West Indies and Bangladesh. The 27-year old earmarked to replace Shikhar Dhawan permanently cited that he has understood the knack of building an inning.

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On Tuesday in the first T20 international against Sri Lanka, the right-hander plundered a stroke-filled 45 off 32 deliveries in India’s victory that saw them take a lead in the three-match series. In the absence of Rohit Sharma, the onus was on him to set things in motion and he did that to perfection. Several experts have built Rahul to replace Dhawan as the opener since the latter has suffered a lean run of late.

Speaking of his knock that set the tone in the chase of 143, Rahul stated that he has captured a proper reading of the game during his run-scoring. He further said that by adequately interpreting the situation, he has understood how to build an innings and that it was just a matter of spending time on the crease.

“I’ve just been getting the runs and the reading of the game has gotten a lot better and knowing how to build my innings again. I felt that I was lacking and I always knew that I had the game to get the runs and it was just a matter of spending time in the middle. Really happy to carry on the same way.” Rahul said as quoted by Times of India.

KL Rahul showers praises on the bowlers:

Along with the captain Virat Kohli, the opening batsman didn’t shy away from giving credit to the bowlers for restricting the tourists to an achievable score. He also said that 170 would have been challenging, but in the pursuit 143, his sole objective was to spend time in the middle.

“It was a smaller target and my plans were simple which is to spend time in the middle. Our bowlers bowled really well and anything around 170 on this wicket would have been par. A lot of credit must go to the bowlers.” he added further.

Navdeep Saini received the man of the match award for picking up two wickets in four overs from 18 runs. The third and the final T20I begins on the 17th of January in Pune.

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