The Indian skipper Virat Kohli has put his weight behind under-fire opener KL Rahul. The flamboyant batsman was dismissed for a blob in the third T20I against England, which the hosts lost by eight wickets at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Tuesday.
Rahul has been struggling to find his form as his last T20I scores read like binary numbers – 0, 1, 0, 0. The stylish batsman hasn’t been able to find any kind of momentum and he was beaten for pace by Mark Wood in the third over the innings. There was no foot movement from Rahul and he has looked like an under-confident batsman in the last few matches.
However, Kohli is optimistic that things can quickly turn in the shortest format of the game and it is a matter of five-six balls. Kohli believes a batsman can gain confidence if he times a few balls in the shortest format of the game.
In fact, Kohli was himself struggling to get a big score in the recent past but his last two innings have been of the highest quality. Kohli had scored a match-winning knock of 73 runs from 49 balls in the second T20I and then back it with another master-class knock of 77 runs from 46 balls in the third T20I but his efforts went in vain.
Virat Kohli said in the post-match presentation, “I was going through a lean patch about two games ago. He (KL Rahul) has been a champion player. If you look at his stats in the last 2-3 years, they are probably better than anyone in T20. He will continue to be one of our main batters along with Rohit at the top of the order. We don’t have any concerns there. It’s a matter of five-six balls in this format and suddenly you are back in that zone. If you lose the toss, embrace what’s been asked of you as a team”.
On the other hand, Kohli heaped praise on England’s pace battery which was absolutely relentless in the first six overs. India could only score 24-3 in the powerplay overs as Mark Wood, Jofra Archer and Chris Jordan pushed India on the backfoot. Kohli also feels the body language of his team also lacked fire in the second half.
Kohli added, “The England bowlers were absolutely brilliant with the new ball. In the first six overs, they hardly gave us anything and made our lives very difficult. We tried to come back as well as we could but I don’t think our body language in the second half was acceptable in the field”.
The fourth T20I will take place on Thursday at the same venue.
