The head of the Kings XI Punjab (KXIP), Anil Kumble has finally revealed the reason behind their skipper, KL Rahul not keeping wickets in the past two games of the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Kumble, who was miked up for an interview with the host broadcasters, said that Rahul had found a need to take a bit of a break from the wicketkeeping duties, paving way for Nicholas Pooran to don the gloves in the last game against CSK and the young Prabhsimran Singh was standing behind the stumps against SRH.

Describing the same, Kumble said, “KL Rahul felt after first few games that he needed a bit of a break. He felt that Nic Pooran can keep wickets.”

ALSO READ: Tushar Deshpande Receives Appreciation From Dale Steyn

During the same interview, Kumble also revealed that Chris Gayle was certain to play the match against SRHbfixture before food poisoning ruled him out. After a 10-wicket loss against CSK, KXIP made three changes to their playing 11 with wicketkeeper Prabhsimran Singh, Arshdeep Singh, and Mujeeb Ur Rahman coming into the side in place of Chris Jordan, Sarfaraz Khan, and Harpreet Brar.

On Prabhsimran Singh’s inclusion, Anil Kumble said- “We felt Prabhsimran Singh has shown a lot of talent in the past 2 months he has been here. We know that he is an existing talent. We felt that this was the game that we can give him an opportunity. And, Prab is a keeper. So, we felt that if Prab keeps then obviously KL and Nic Pooran can field”

ALSO READ: MS Dhoni Can’t Fix All The Bigs In CSK, feels Pragyan Ojha

Meanwhile, KXIP’s bowling issues have continued against SRH as David Warner and Jonny Bairstow smashed their bowlers al-over the park as they amassed 160 runs for the first wicket. Ravi Bishnoi’s double-strike of both openers have aided in KXIP staging some sort of recovery as SRH have lost three wickets for one run.