At a time when youngsters like Ruturaj Gaikwad and Yashasvi Jaiswal are scoring at 160-plus strike rates, KL Rahul’s 20-ball 18 on Monday, while his team chased a 200-plus total, looked terribly ordinary.
Not that Lucknow Super Giants had to pay for Rahul’s snail-paced scoring — Nicholas Pooran and Marcus Stoinis’ big-hitting helped them chase down the stiff target against Royal Challengers Bangalore — but such batting in a World Cup year will definitely worry the Indian team management, who consider the right-handed batter an integral part of their plans.
Rahul, however, is not worried. In fact, he thinks he did the right thing batting cautiously as Lucknow had lost a few early wickets. “If I score more runs, the strike-rate will go up. I looked at the situation and I feel I had done the right thing. Hopefully, with a couple of good knocks the strike rate will go up,” Rahul said, following his team’s one-wicket win.
But the problem is, his slow knock on Monday was not one-off. His other scores in this IPL are 8 off 12 balls, 20 off 18 balls, 35 off 31 balls, which make his overall strike rate 100. His logic that if he scores more, the strike rate will go up automatically, also looks weak. Who will offer him that much time in modern cricket?
The T20 effect has understandably rubbed off on ODI cricket, where, barring matches in exceptionally tough conditions, batters are usually expected to score at a quick click without wasting too many balls.
Rahul is definitely a talented batter, with rich strokes in his arsenal. But perhaps it would be better for him if he accepts the issues in his batting and works on them.
