KL Rahul has been the captain of the Punjab Kings (PBKS) and the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for a considerable amount of time. With the batter taking over when regular skipper Rohit Sharma is unable to play, Rahul’s leadership abilities have even propelled him into the national spotlight. However, he has not established a reputation as an intelligent skipper.
Rahul’s way to deal with the game, direction, and general exhibitions have gone under tremendous analysis of late. He has made a number of questionable statements in press conferences and after-match interactions, including the now-famous assertion that “strike rate is overrated.” Since the start of the IPL 2023, the LSG skipper KL Rahul has made the following three bizarre statements.
3) After LSG’s first defeat in the IPL 2023, KL Rahul stated, “We just needed them to go over the rope.”
At Chepauk, LSG lost for the first time in IPL 2023 to Chennai Super Kings (CSK). The Super Giants lost their way in the middle overs against spin after Kyle Mayers hit 53 off 22 balls to get them off to a great start in their chase of 218. They ultimately missed the target by 12 runs.
In that game, LSG made a lot of bizarre tactical choices. At No. 1, Krunal Pandya was brought in. 4, whereas Nicholas Pooran was promoted ahead of Marcus Stoinis. Despite the pitch being slightly challenging to bat on in the middle overs of the chase, Rahul refused to accept that his decision to bowl first was a deciding factor. He likewise pointed fingers at a couple of hitters simply neglecting to clear the limit, something that occurs in pretty much every T20 game.
2) After losing to PBKS, KL Rahul said, “A few batters got caught just at the boundary line.”
Rahul did say that batters will rarely get caught on the boundary line. That assertion is clearly misleading, and it was demonstrated when LSG took on the Punjab Rulers (PBKS) when it reoccurred. Against his former team, Rahul performed questionably as captain and batsman. After a sluggish start, he failed to accelerate, playing 56 balls for his 74.
Ravi Bishnoi was also announced as the sixth bowler by the skipper. Notwithstanding the leg-spinner being Lucknow’s greatest danger on a superficial level, he bowled simply 2.3 overs. LSG probably lost the game because Rahul distracted the attention away from his strategies. Instead, he decided to point to batters getting caught on the boundary once more as the primary cause of the loss.
It goes without saying that a single incident in virtually every T20 cricket match cannot be repeatedly identified as significant. Assuming hitters get found out on the limit, it is because of unfortunate execution and not misfortune.
1) After losing to GT, KL Rahul said, “I don’t know where it went wrong.”
This is without a doubt KL Rahul’s most outrageous IPL 2023 statement to date. At the Ekana Stadium, LSG played the Gujarat Titans (GT), and they won the majority of the game. They confined the reigning champs to only 135, and toward the finish of the fourteenth over of the pursuit, required just 31 runs off 36 balls with nine wickets close by.
Additionally, Rahul was scoring 57 runs off 44 balls at the time. He didn’t pick up the pace of his innings as wickets fell around him, which was understandable. He slowed dramatically before being caught in the deep for 68 off 61, making even the strike rotation difficult.
Rahul only scored 11 runs from those 17 balls. LSG needed 10 runs in four balls after the 31-year-old was run out in the final over. Mohit Sharma held his nerve to catch the home team seven runs short as three more wickets fell off the following three balls. Rahul stated that he was unaware of what had taken place in Lucknow and refused to accept blame for the defeat.