Just about the same time, last year, when the Indian opener, KL Rahul was going through the lowest point of his International career. He had lost his opening position in the longest format after failing to perform on a consistent basis in South Africa, England, and Australia, and he was also got suspended along with all-rounder Hardik Pandya because of their appearance on a popular chat show.
A lot of water has flown under the bridge since then. Rahul opened the innings during the ODI World Cup as Shikhar Dhawan was ruled out due to injury. His resurgence truly came when he has dropped from the Test set-up post the series in the West Indies. Rahul went back to domestic cricket, and not only scored a truckload of runs for Karnataka in Vijay-Hazare and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy but also kept wickets.
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With Rishabh Pant struggling with both bat as well as with his gloves, the Indian team managed asked Rahul to wear the wicket-keeping gloves during the Australian ODI series. The right-hander was also asked to bat at No.5 in ODIs and the stylish batsman has responded beautifully thus far.
Rahul smoked a match-winning fifty in his first outing at No.5 against Australia and carried it forward in the New Zealand series which he capped it off with a whirlwind 112 at the Bay Oval. He has shown some impressive performance with his wicketkeeping too. His childhood coach Samuel Jayaj has credited India’s captain Virat Kohli and Rahul’s former RCB teammate AB de Villiers.
Samuel revealed that Rahul had a chat with Virat and De Villiers as they always believed in his ability and showed confidence in him.
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As per the quotes n TOI, Jayraj said, “He spoke with AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli. Virat spoke with him and motivated him. Apart from AB de and Virat, some more former cricketers spoke with him. ABD understands him better because he is also a wicketkeeper-batsman. Virat showed confidence in him. Virat knew how talented Rahul is. Watch KL’s stance closely, it is very very balanced. He looks calm before the ball reaches him. That’s one of the changes he has brought into his game.”
