Team India keeper-batter KL Rahul has opened up about the reason behind his spending some time in the middle in the third and final ODI against the West Indies in New Chandigarh on Saturday, October 3.
Speaking on JioStar’s ‘Haier Cricket Live’, KL Rahul asserted that he has been trying a few things off the field and is keen to test them in the game. Notably, Rahul scored an unbeaten 129 off 87 with 10 fours and six sixes at a strike rate of 148.28 in the third ODI.
“Happy to have scored 129 runs but disappointed that we couldn’t clean sweep the series. Had we done that, then the happiness level would have been at the peak. Nonetheless, I wanted to spend more time with the bat out there in the middle and the last time I really got to bat for a long duration in ODI cricket, in the middle-order was in early January this year against New Zealand, and since then I haven’t really got a lot of time to play a long innings,” Rahul said.
“And next year is a big one, with the World Cup starting in October, so it’s important for me to get valuable batting time because off the field I’m trying a few things and I want to test that in the game. And only then will you know whether the work that you’re putting behind the scenes is working or not, or what I need to do differently. So yeah, it was important for me to get some batting time, so I’m happy about that,” Rahul added.
Further, Rahul spoke on the challenge of batting at No.5 in the middle order, adding that things have been pretty difficult since the ball rule change has happened. He went on to add that he has been constantly working on playing with softer and older balls to improve his gameplay in the middle overs.
“It’s very different, but I’ve been doing this role for the last 6-7 years. In the last year and a half, since the ball change rule has happened, it’s been very different. It’s not been easy to get 80-90 in the last 10 overs. The ball’s been getting reverse swing, and even in this game, once the ball got old and soft, and started to reverse swing, as a batter you don’t feel confident enough to take on the long-on and deep mid-wicket fielder if it’s a big boundary on that side. I’ve always batted top of the order, and I like the hard ball coming onto me, I can use the pace. So that’s something I’ve been working on, trying to play with softer, older balls and being able to hit sixes with that. So, that’s something I’ve worked on. I constantly try to get better within my own game, understand my role, understand what a number five and number six batter has to do to consistently put up performances for the team,” he concluded.
