Robin Uthappa takes KL Rahul critics to the cleaners: The former Indian batter hasn’t shied away from praising the current vice-captain.
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India vice-captain KL Rahul finally managed to find his groove post facing criticism around his strike rate across nine innings since returning to the shortest format after more than nine months.
Opening the batting with captain Rohit Sharma (43) in the ongoing second T20I against South Africa, Rahul scored his 20th T20I half-century, 19th as an opening batter, 16th in Asia, 12th at home, seventh under Sharma, fourth in 2022 and second in as many matches against this opposition in his first-ever match at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium.
Facing South Africa fast bowler Kagiso Rabada, Rahul hit his first ball of the innings for a boundary to not waste any time. Three more fours and a six in the powerplay saw Rahul racing to 25 (11) in the powerplay.
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In what was a role-reversal of sorts, Rahul was the attacker with Sharma playing the anchor role. Not looking to slow down even after the powerplay, Rahul continued to play his shots successfully. It was on the fourth delivery of the 11th over when Rahul hit South Africa part-time spinner Aiden Markram for a boundary to complete a 24-ball half-century.
Robin Uthappa takes KL Rahul critics to the cleaners
Rahul, who hit five fours and four sixes at a strike rate of 203.57 tonight, earned applause from former India batter Robin Uthappa. The recently retired cricketer took to social media platform Twitter to slam Rahul’s critics.
There is no denying to the fact that Rahul has faced quite a lot of criticism for his T20I strike rate of late. While Rahul’s latest innings is praiseworthy, him scoring 249 runs at a strike rate of 119.13 since his T20I return in August aren’t numbers which justify his potential.
A strike rate of less than 120 for a modern-day opening batter isn’t up to the mark taking into consideration how Rahul’s contemporaries bat in this format. Readers must note that these nine Rahul innings comprise of him scoring a half-century on a difficult batting surface at the Greenfield International Stadium on Wednesday.
