Dubai: KL Rahul is delighted after successfully migrating to No. 6 batting slot, and termed it as a result of his unrelenting “preparation” and improving his game constantly.
Rahul, who usually bat No. 5, was pushed down a position lower in the Champions Trophy, and made 140 runs in four innings here.
“It’s really pleasing for me. The work that I’m putting in to different roles requires a lot of preparation, work outside the cricket field, thinking about how I need to take each game and how I need to perform in different situations and watch some of the players that bat at 5, 6 and how they’ve been successful,” said Rahul following India’s Champions Trophy triumph on Sunday.
Rahul said he was happy to take up that new responsibility for the team.
“I’ve been taught from a very early age by my coaches that cricket is a team game and whatever the team requires of you, you need to be able to accept that and find a way to put in performances for the team and understand what your role is, understand what the responsibility is, understand what it takes to be successful batting in different positions,” he added.
True to those words, Rahul adapted well to the situation in the semifinal against Australia and in the final against New Zealand, producing small yet significant knocks.
The Bengaluru man made an unbeaten 42 against the Aussies while his collected 32 not out helped India come out of a tight chase against the Kiwis successfully.
Overall, he made just 140 runs but he made it at a strike-rate of 98, indicating the impact those runs had on the course of the game.
Skipper Rohit Sharma indicated as much.
“The pressure doesn’t get to him with that calmness, we wanted that calmness in the middle. I’m very, very happy with how he managed to pull this tournament and batted in the pressure situation, both in semifinals and this game as well.
“The contribution may not be 70-80, but those 30-40s are a very, very important one,” said Rohit.
Now, Rahul has a Champions Trophy to show for his efforts, and he was pleased as punch.
“I’m very happy at the moment, ICC victories are not so easy to get. It’s my first run so I’m very happy over the moon and really happy with the way we’ve played this entire tournament and it’s been a complete team effort,” he noted.
Rahul was an assured presence behind the stumps as well, pulling off important stumping and catches.
The 32-year-old was chuffed because ‘keeping was not an easy task in these conditions where spinners dominated.
“It’s not something very new and the role of a wicketkeeper batsman that I’m doing here in the Indian team, I think from 2019 or 2020. I do wicket keeping in IPL as well.
“But I think this is the most challenging place that I’ve kept wickets in. I worked really hard and I have to mention our fielding coach Dilip sir also, he worked very hard with me…his tips and whatever he noticed about my keeping, so it worked,” he added.
PTI
