KL Rahul, over the years, has emerged as a multi-format player for India, and hence, also looked as a captain-material by many. Just recently, he took India to a 2-1 victory over South Africa in the ODI series and led the side well in every match. In fact, former India batsman Sanjay Majrekar looked mighty impressed with Rahul the captain.
Manjrekar went on to say that Rahul’s instinct is equal to that of MS Dhoni. “These days, when you see KL Rahul on the ground, he looks very relaxed and in a good mind space. He captained as expected. He looks comfortable in the leadership role. He has led a lot in the IPL, in a Test match in South Africa and in one-day matches as well. You can expect KL Rahul not to make any big mistake. He is an expert in DRS. His instinct is equal to that of MS Dhoni,” Manjrekar told ESPNcricinfo.
“It seems like Indian cricket is running on autopilot mode. Suryakumar Yadav won as captain recently, KL Rahul now. Rohit Sharma has also won a lot of games for India. A lot of credit for the success must go to the players. Captaincy is good, but not game-changing. It’s the players who are doing really well,” Manjrekar added.
Rahul to Keep Wickets in IND vs SA Tests
A couple of days back, India coach Rahul Dravid had confirmed, that KL Rahul will keep wickets for India in Ishan Kishan’s absence. “It’s an exciting challenge. It’s an opportunity for him to do something different. With Ishan unavailable, we had a couple of keepers to choose from. Rahul is very confident about giving it a go. We understand that he hasn’t done that quite often (in longest format), but he has done it in fifty overs, and even that is tough,” Dravid said.
“He has done a lot of keeping in the past five-six months. One of the things here is that there is more pace bowling than spin, which will ease him into the role. We will see how it goes. It is nice to have someone like him, someone who has the ability with the bat and keep,” said the Indian head coach.