Former New Zealand and RCB captain Daniel Vettori is of the view that the coaches will have to “destigmatize” the term risk in KL Rahul’s mind to make him play freely in the T20 format of the game because he has got all the ability in the world.
Explaining his point further on ESPNCricinfo, Daniel Vettori said that KL Rahul is such a good player that if he looks to play aggressively at the start of the innings or through the middle period, it’s not as risky for him as it is for some other lesser batsmen, because he is as capable as anyone else in the world. And, that’s something that the coaches will have to tell him.
According to Vettori, KL Rahul, at one stage in last night’s eliminator game against RCB, was batting on 48 off 42 balls. If he had tried a couple of big shots through the middle phase of the innings and those shots had come off, he would have found himself batting on 60 off 42 balls, which would have been so much better in the context of the game.
Vettori insisted that with the amount of ability KL Rahul possesses, it’s not a big deal for him to find a couple of boundaries through the middle phase, if he shows a bit of intent and goes searching for boundaries, rather than just sitting back and rotating strike.
When you leave too many runs to chase at the end, everything has to go perfectly for you: Daniel Vettori
Daniel Vettori admitted that it has happened in the past that the teams have left themselves with 65 or 70 runs to chase in the last 5 overs of the innings and have successfully chased it, but the southpaw said when you put yourself in that kind of situation, you have to hope that everything goes perfectly and according to the plan for you.
Vettori further added that the batting side also has to consider the quality of the bowlers that they have to face in the last 5 bowlers. In the game against RCB, Rahul and the other Lucknow Supergiants (LSG) batsmen had to face Harshal Patel and Josh Hazlewood and those two are certainly not the easiest bowlers to put away.
