NEW DELHI: KL Rahul has “not done badly at all” with the bat, according to assistant coach Lance Klusener. This IPL season, Klusener thinks that the Lucknow Super Giants captain has had to hold back his attacking instincts due to falling wickets’ number.
Rahul is seventh in terms of most runs scored this year with 465 runs from 13 matches at a strike rate of 136.36 including three half-centuries, and he’s often criticised for his strike rate. LSG however are on the verge of elimination despite this performance.
LSG will be the seventh placed team that will confront Mumbai Indians on Friday as their last group match in IPL this season.
“He’s had some great performances over the tournament. Many times he has had to rebuild because we have lost wickets around him. He hasn’t been allowed to play his natural game,” said Klusener when asked if having captaincy pressures along with scoring runs was affecting Rahul’s performance.
“It’s easy to just sit and think, ‘oh well, he hasn’t had a great tournament’. But if you look at his numbers, they’re actually not bad at all, considering the circumstances that he’s had to bat,” he told reporters during a press conference on Thursday at Wankhede Stadium where LSG were training.
“He’s earned respect from the group. You look at (his) captaincy, outstanding. If he looks back, he might just be a little frustrated with the amount of runs that he scored,” Klusener said.
The former South African cricketer mentioned that Rahul often had to rebuild the innings during league phase which stopped him from playing his natural game which would have been fast and furious mode most likely
“If you look at circumstances while batting many times when he has batted there so it hasn’t just been him rebuilding it always but also our batting group around him hasn’t done him too many favours,” he said.
Klusener also refused to put the blame on any specific reason as to why the team failed to perform up to its potential.
“I’m a big believer that the bowling group plays a huge role in winning T20 games. But there’s no blame at anyone’s door,” he said.
“We just haven’t been consistent enough as a group this year. And we haven’t scored enough runs and again, we haven’t taken enough wickets as well. You put all that together and that’s why you end up where we are on the log.”
Klusener said they still have a chance of making IPL playoffs – given they beat MI on Friday and other results go their way – and would focus on winning.
“We’re not resigned to any fact. We’re just in a position where we can only make sure that we get over the line tomorrow. We’ve had enough opportunities over the course of the competition to make sure we don’t have to rely on others,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mumbai Indians’ Naman Dhir has admitted that MI’s bowlers could have supported Jasprit Bumrah better who has 2nd most successful bowlers with 20 wickets.
We had some good batting or at other times we had good bowling. Coaches have also talked with us that it was not a season for us but we’ve worked hard. Yes, Jasprit bhai did not get enough support to his bowling in some matches, but we will learn from it,” he said.
