It’s been more than nine months since India lost the ICC World Cup 2019 semi-final to New Zealand but the heartbreak of the defeat is as fresh as yesterday for KL Rahul. India ended the league stage while leading the charts as they earned 15 points from nine matches but a top-order failure, of which Rahul himself was a part of, saw them go down lose the first semifinal to New Zealand at Manchester, which was contested across two days.
Chasing a below part total of 240 to win, India were reduced to 5/3 with Rahul, Rohit Sharma, and Virat Kohli back in the pavilion. Ravindra Jadeja and MS Dhoni gave India some hope with a phenomenal century partnership but with their dismissals in quick succession, India’s hopes faded and they eventually lost the game by 18 runs.
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Nine months later, Rahul revealed most of the players are yet to sink-in with India’s semifinal loss.
During a show name The Mind Behind, KL said, “It has to be the World Cup semi-final. I think most of us are still not over that loss, it still haunts us sometimes. I can’t imagine what the senior players must have felt but you know in a World Cup it just becomes even harder and knowing that we played so well in the entire tournament. Yeah, so, I still wake up to that nightmare sometimes.”
Rahul has been going some great guns in international cricket as he has now become India wicket-keeper batsman after the support from Virat Kohli. With the top three settled in Rohit, Shikhar Dhawan, and Kohli with Shreyas Iyer to follow at four, Rahul has played some useful knocks at No.5. Add to that the return of Hardik Pandya and India look a pretty formidable batting unit.
Talking about his bind with Virat, Rahul said, “I’ll go with Virat (Kohli) because I know, everybody knows he is a great player. We share a great friendship and he will give it all to save my life.”
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Kohli has never given up on Rahul. In fact, back in 2014, after an atrocious Test debut at MCG, Rahul’s was included in the final Test at Sydney, which was Kohli’s second time leading India following MS Dhoni’s retirement from Test cricket. After scores of 3 and 1 in Melbourne, Rahul struck a century in just his second Test and marked his arrival into the Indian team.
