When Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) selected their squad for the 11th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), they had to sort out the position ss of a leader and a wicketkeeper in place. After electing Ravichandran Ashwin as the skipper, KXIP is looking towards KL Rahul as a wicket-keeper, who was bought for a whopping prize money of ₹11 crores. He has played a crucial role for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), especially in their run to the final in 2016 season.

It will not be the first time when Rahul will be donning the wicketkeeper gloves. In a recent chat with Sportstar, he acknowledged the challenges he might face as a wicketkeeper-batsman for KXIP, he said, “For now, I will be keeping is what I know. But you never know, the game is fast and you got to be flexible in your head. There will be changes according to the situation, wickets and other factors. So you can’t really tell who is going to be permanent in any position.”

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Meanwhile, Karnataka coach P. V Shashikanth is confident of Rahul will do justice to both his jobs of batting and wicketkeeping. He even compared him to Rahul Dravid as he said, “He is the same like Rahul Dravid. When he was playing for India, he was also asked to keep. He comes from the same mold. I remember a game when he was playing U-22 and we had a main ‘keeper in the first innings.”

The coach further added, “He left almost five or six byes and those went for boundaries; almost 20 runs were leaked like that. KL was also on the side, so I asked him to keep in the second innings. It was a tight game, and every run was important. He kept brilliantly and ultimately, we lost by 20 runs.”

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Rahul had recently kept wickets in the recently concluded Vijay Hazare Trophy final against Saurashtra. Talking about the same, the coach said he is one of those players who are ready for doing any job for the team. He fits into the role, especially in the T20Is and ODIs.