Virat Kohli opens up on KL Rahul: The Indian captain was vocal about KL Rahul’s praiseworthy innings against Bangladesh.
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India have regained confidence after defeating Bangladesh comprehensively in their second warm-up match at Cardiff. In what was an impressive 95-run victory, it saw India ticking some crucial boxes ahead of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019.
Selected as a reserve opener, India batsman Lokesh Rahul scoring a magnificent century at No. 4 might have all but confirmed his position in the middle-order for India’s first match against South Africa at Southampton on June 5.
Virat Kohli opens up on KL Rahul
Speaking during the post-match presentation, India captain Virat Kohli was wax lyrical about Rahul and termed his innings as the biggest positive for India tonight. “I think the biggest positive to come out was the way KL Rahul batted at four. It is important that he gets runs and he is a sound player to get the scoreboard ticking,” Kohli was quoted as saying.
The big plus from today’s game is @klrahul11 has the number 4 issue been settled for the time being at least? @imkuldeep18 picking wickets is the other big plus for me. And @msdhoni was stellar.
— Boria Majumdar (@BoriaMajumdar) May 28, 2019
Other than Rahul, Kohli also threw accolades on Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Hardik Pandya and the Indian spinners. While Dhoni smashed a quickfire 113 (78), Pandya scored 21 (11) to power India to 359/7 in their allotted quota of 50 overs.
“MS [Dhoni] and Hardik [Pandya] were superb as well. We were challenged by their batsmen as well and our spinners got wickets too. The ball might turn a bit in the second half but I feel the swing and seam would be important in the first fifteen overs,” Kohli said.
“Shikhar and Rohit are quality players…”
The Indian skipper remained unperturbed by his opening batsmen not making the most in both the practice matches. Kohli backed both Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan’s record in ICC tournaments and was confident of them standing tall during the league matches.
“Most of the teams winning the toss would want to chase. We have had two good challenges in the two games while batting first. Shikhar [Dhawan] and Rohit [Sharma] are quality players, they become stars in ICC events. I understand if guys don’t get going right away in this format, but I am glad with what we got out of these two games,” Kohli added.
