“He’s a champions player”: Virat Kohli backs KL Rahul despite him scoring a run in three T20Is vs England

Virat Kohli backs KL Rahul: The Indian captain highlighted the struggling opening batsman’s record in the recent years.

India captain Virat Kohli refrained from blaming the outcome of the toss as a reason behind his team’s second defeat in three matches of the ongoing five-match T20I series between India and England in Ahmedabad.

“If you lose the toss, embrace what’s been asked of you. The England bowlers attacked right lines and lengths and with their pace they became more potent. We lacked intensity in the second half,” Kohli told Star Sports during the post-match presentation ceremony.

Kohli, who rescued the Indian team to power them to a competitive total via his 27th T20I half-century, admitted that the surface at the Narendra Modi Stadium was “difficult to bat”. It is worth mentioning that it was in the last five overs of the Indian innings that Kohli scored 49* (17) to power India to 156/6 in 20 overs.

As good as @imVkohli was today @josbuttler is matching him if not bettering his genius today … #INDvENG

— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) March 16, 2021

“If that [his innings] helps the team, then sure. You don’t want to play knocks which don’t help the team in any way. It was a bit difficult to bat against the new ball. Their bowlers were hitting good areas. We got one little partnership, it was important for me to bat deep. The case was to get set and try to get a decent total,” Kohli said.

Virat Kohli backs KL Rahul

It was before the start of the series that Kohli had announced vice-captain Rohit Sharma and batsman Lokesh Rahul as their first-choice opening pair in the shortest format. With Rahul returning with scores of 1, 0 and 0 since then, there have been suggestions from the outside regarding the team management needing to rethink the opening combination.

Being asked about the same, Kohli sounded unperturbed as he firmly backed Rahul at the top of the order highlighting how he was presumed to be in a “lean patch” after he scored a duck in the first T20I.

ALSO READ: How many runs has KL Rahul scored in his last 10 T20I innings?

“I was going through a lean patch two days back [laughs]. He [KL Rahul] has been a champion player. He will continue to be one of our main players along with Rohit [Sharma] at the top of the order. It’s a matter of five-six balls in this format,” Kohli mentioned.

About the author

Dixit Bhargav

Born and brought up in Pathankot, Dixit Bhargav is an engineering and sports management graduate who works as a Cricket Editor at The SportsRush. Having written more than 10,000 articles across more than five years at TSR, his first cricketing memory dates back to 2002 when former India captain Sourav Ganguly had waved his jersey at the historic Lord’s balcony. What followed for an 8-year-old was an instant adulation for both Ganguly and the sport. The optimist in him is waiting for the day when Punjab Kings will win their maiden Indian Premier League title. When not watching cricket, he is mostly found in a cinema hall watching a Punjabi movie.

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