Adelaide: In the pre-match press conference ahead of the game against Bangladesh in the Men’s T20 World Cup at Adelaide Oval, India head coach Rahul Dravid backed KL Rahul to the hilt in coming good and finding his form back.
In the ongoing T20 World Cup, with scores of 4, 9 and 9 in Super 12s, Rahul had a torrid time with the bat. Instead of his aggressive avatar, he was overly cautious at the crease, and didn’t show much footwork.
But on Wednesday, Rahul shrugged off his lean run 32-ball 50, hitting three fours and four sixes in a display of elegant strokeplay at a strike-rate of 156.25 against Bangladesh to come back into form and justify the immense faith on him and his skills by Dravid and team management.
Rahul said that he was confident of finding form in the tournament after recording a hat-trick of single-digit figures and his start to Wednesday’s game not being as smooth as one would have liked.
“It’s been a bit of a mixed time. I came into Australia with a few good knocks back home. Batted well in the warm-ups, but the first three games didn’t go my way.
“Was still confident, as a batter you know when you’re playing well. I was doing a lot of things right, I was seeing the ball well so wasn’t worried about missing out,” said Rahul in a mid-innings chat with the broadcasters.
Rahul also produced the shot of India’s innings, a fantastically-timed square cut going flat over cover point for six off pacer Hasan Mahmud in the fourth over. Though he fell immediately after reaching his fifty, his knock would have pleased Dravid and Indian think-tank.
“You want to do well for the country, was excited about doing well and happy to have got a good innings under my belt. We will have to bowl well with the new ball. Some wickets might put pressure on them,” concluded Rahul.
(IANS)
