New Zealand pacer Mitchell McClenaghan lashed out at Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) captain KL Rahul’s slow-paced 33-ball 29-run and his
slow batting style in general after the side’s 10-wicket defeat to SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Wednesday, May 9. Winning the toss
and batting first, LSG lost two early wickets in Quinton de Kock and Marcus Stoinis but KL Rahul couldn’t score quickly and they eventually lost.
Following the game, McClenaghan slammed Rahul for lacking intent. “If this doesn’t wake KL up to the style of cricket he needs to play going forward to be successful and to continue playing for India, I don’t know what will. He can do it. He has got to get past, very similar to what we’ve seen with Virat (Kohli), the feeling of ‘ You’re the only person that can score runs’. And he’s got to go, right, I need to score runs but if I am going to miss out, it’s okay,” McClenaghan said on ESPNcricinfo.
“Trust the other guys to do the job. It looks like he’s carrying the whole team on his back thinking that if he doesn’t bat the innings, they are not going to get a score. So, if he does get out like tonight, they’re a long way behind where they need to be,” he further added.
However, KL Rahul has often come under the scanner for his tentative approach to batting in the T20 format. He has amassed 460 runs so far this IPL season, yet the strike rate of 136.09 which is below-par going by the current T20 benchmark for an opener as well.
“It’s going to take a really good coach and a good coaching structure or management to give him the confidence that it’s okay to fail and we’re not going to drop you. And Even that message coming from the top, I don’t see any harm in Dravid and Rohit saying ‘We’re not going to drop you if you have this intent ( attacking) all the time because we know it takes some time for you to change the style of play,” concluded Mitchell McClenaghan. “But if they can unlock that from top down, India down, they can unlock that in KL Rahul. He’s one of the best batters going around and he will bounce back from this.”
