Credit Goes To Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers For KL Rahul's Success: Samuel Jayaraj

In the last four months of international cricket, the Indian National Cricket Team found a new hero in the name of KL Rahul, who is making waves with his batting in limited-overs formats. The flamboyant batsman has become a reliable performer for India following his heroics in the recent past.

Following success against the West Indies, Rahul showed his class against Australian before taking the T20I series against New Zealand by a storm. He collected Man of the Series award in the five-match T20I series before scoring two big knocks against the same opposition in the 50-over format.

Virat Kohli knew how talented KL Rahul is:

Meanwhile, spilling out the beans behind Rahul’s success, the childhood coach of the Karnataka batsman Samuel Jayaraj stated that the credit must go to Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers, who have helped him a lot to make things fall in place. Especially, from de Villiers, who has also served as a wicketkeeper-batsman in the past.

Jayaraj revealed that Rahul received many tips and learnt a lot from the duo, who have been close to KL for a while now. He highlighted the calmness of his batting and the balance in his batting stance, which helped him to scale new heights in the recent past.

“He (KL Rahul) spoke with a number of cricketers. He spoke with AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli. Virat spoke with him and motivated him. Apart from ABD and Virat, some more former cricketers spoke with him. But I would give the credit to ABD and Virat,” Samuel Jayaraj told Timesofindia.com in an exclusive interview.

”ABD understands him better because he is also a wicketkeeper-batsman. Virat showed confidence in him. Virat knew how talented Rahul is. Watch KL’s stance closely, it is very very balanced. He looks calm before the ball reaches him. That’s one of the changes he has brought into his game,” he added.

Currently, he is in the best of his forms and would like to make the most of it. Rahul will next be in the action when India take on South Africa in the home series before moving his attention to Indian Premier League (IPL), where he will be leading Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) under the supervision of Anil Kumble.