KL Rahul says he is working on his strike rate: On being almost confirmed as an opener for the upcoming T20 World Cup, KL Rahul has said that he is working on increasing his strike rate and now has more clarity about the role that he and others will play has been defined in the last 10 -12 months.
India’s head coach Rahul Dravid and captain Rohit Sharma have often talked about the positives at the top, and so now in the limelight is Rahul, who has managed to face a tough challenge from Virat Kohli for the starting spot and he has been given the opportunity to win India’s top slot. He has been tasked with maximizing the powerplay and improving his strike rate, which he once called “very very overrated”.
“Look, it’s obviously something that every player works towards,” Rahul said on the eve of the first T20I against Australia. “No one is perfect. No one in that dressing room is perfect. Everyone is working towards something. Everyone has a certain role to do. Obviously, strike rates are taken on an overall basis. You never see when that batsman has played at a certain strike rate, whether it was important for him to play at a 200 strike rate or if the team could have still won playing at a 100-120 strike rate. So these are the things that not everybody analyses. Or if you look at it, it looks slow.”
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“Yes, it is something that I am working on,” Rahul said on his strike rate. “Obviously, with the roles that have been defined for each player in the last 10-12 months, you know very clearly and the player understands what is expected out of them and everyone’s working towards it.”
“The most important thing for a player in that dressing room is what his captain, coach and his (fellow) players think of him. Only we know what role is expected out of each person and everyone is trying to give their best. And not every time will a player succeed. That is the kind of environment we’ve created where players are not afraid to make mistakes or fail. We work the hardest for this,” Rahul said.
“Criticism happens every time. We criticize ourselves more than any of you do. We dream of winning. We are representing the country, and we want to win the World Cup all that is on our minds. When we don’t do well, it hurts us the most. It’s about what goes on in our team. We have a support staff and leader who not only appreciates when times are good but also in tough times when an individual has done well, they back us,” he added.
KL Rahul’s Batting Stats
KL has shown brilliance in all forms of cricket throughout his career. He has scored 1963 runs in T20Is with a strike rate of 140.9 which is slightly low as an opener considering they have 6 powerplay overs, but not bad at all. Let’s have a quick look at his Batting stats overall:
| Inn | NO | Runs | Avg | SR | 100 | 50 | 4s | 6s | |
| Test | 74 | 2 | 2547 | 35.38 | 52.7 | 7 | 13 | 309 | 17 |
| ODI | 43 | 6 | 1665 | 45.0 | 87.86 | 5 | 10 | 125 | 39 |
| T20I | 57 | 7 | 1963 | 39.26 | 140.92 | 2 | 17 | 172 | 79 |
| IPL | 100 | 19 | 3889 | 48.01 | 136.22 | 4 | 31 | 327 | 164 |
Now if we look at his last three year’s T20I stats, they are really substandard. The Average has fallen down, the strike rate has been falling down consistently and this somehow affects the player’s mental state and maths of matches.
| Year | Innings | Runs | Outs | Avg | SR | HS | 50 | 100 | 4s | 6s | Dot % |
| 2020 | 10 | 404 | 9 | 44.9 | 140.8 | 57 | 4 | 0 | 34 | 13 | 28.6 |
| 2021 | 11 | 289 | 10 | 28.9 | 130.8 | 69 | 4 | 0 | 28 | 10 | 34.4 |
| 2022 | 5 | 132 | 5 | 26.4 | 122.2 | 62 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 6 | 36.1 |
But hoping he will come back this time, and come back strong. Visit ICC Cricket Schedule for more Updates
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