Former Indian opener, Gautam Gambhir reckons that it is too early to judge KL Rahul’s captaincy credentials. Gambhir also defended the latter from critics after India lost a Test and 3 ODIs under his captaincy in South Africa. During a recent chat with India Today during the launch of the Lucknow Super Giants logo, Gambhir said judging KL Rahul based on 4 games in South Africa is not the right thing to do.
Gautam Gambhir, who has come on board as Lucknow’s mentor, said Rahul is calm and composed and that’s a fine attribute to possess as captain. KL Rahul led Punjab Kings in the last 2 seasons of the Indian Premier League (IPL) but he failed to take the teams to the playoffs despite some stunning individual performances.
However, Rahul’s captaincy was questioned as India lost the Johannesburg Test, allowing South Africa to make a comeback into the 3-Test series after the visiting team, under the captaincy of Virat Kohli, had won the series opener in Centurion. India went down 0-3 in the ODI series, returning home empty-handed.
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Talking about Rahul, Gautam Gambhir said, “Sometimes we start relating someone just with performances and the results. It’s too early to judge someone by just captaining 4 games.”
Rahul will be continuing his role as Rohit Sharma’s deputy in the white-ball format as India named the Lucknow captain as the vice-captain of the ODI and T20I teams for the upcoming series against West Indies.
Talking about Rahul’s captaincy further, Gautam Gambhir said, “But the most important attribute a leader should have is he doesn’t fly too high that he doesn’t go down too deep either. That is probably the best quality KL Rahul has. Always captaincy is a work in progress. You can never say, as a player or as a leader, that you have achieved everything. You want to keep improving every day. You got to be the best of yourself till the last day of your career.”
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He further added, “Whatever I have seen of KL, he has a great, great future ahead not only as a batter but as a leader as well. Because that is a quality that very few people have – being calm and composed. When you start doing that, that reflects on the entire team as well. “When you have that kind of leader, the entire squad will benefit a lot. And I am sure he is going to do that, knowing the kind of person that he is.”
Lucknow Super Giants, owned by the RPSG group, has appointed KL Rahul as their captain in the draft process that was held for the 2 new teams in IPL 2022. Lucknow paid INR 17 crores for Rahul, INR 9.2 crores for Marcus Stoinis, and INR 4 crores for Ravi Bishnoi. They will have a purse of INR 58 crore for the IPL 2022 auction, scheduled for February 12 and 13.
