Indian cricket star KL Rahul has acknowledged that he misses having veteran players like Ravichandran Ashwin, Virat Kohli, and Rohit Sharma in the Test lineup.
In the five-match Test series against England earlier this year, KL Rahul acknowledged that he “felt a little strange” without the seasoned trio in the setup.
He also mentioned how, from the moment he began to view himself as a senior player for the sake of the younger players on the squad, a sense of maturity slowly crept into his demeanour.
“I haven’t given it much attention, but I’m not sure if it happened naturally. Since I spent the majority of my Test career with those two or three senior men, it goes without saying that I miss having them around in the changing room. Since Rohit, Virat, and Ashwin had usually been in the changing room, it seemed a little odd when I entered there in England and they weren’t there.
After the second day of play against the West Indies in Ahmedabad, KL Rahul told JioHotstar, “Somewhere along the way, you get the sense that, as a senior player, you need to step up and take a bit more responsibility, so that the younger guys can focus on their cricket without feeling burdened.”
After the series against New Zealand, where he was dropped following the series-opening match, KL Rahul, who scored his 11th Test century against the West Indies in the current Ahmedabad Test, also disclosed that he has focused more on his mental game than his mechanical one. He also explained his batting mantra and went into detail about how the England series has given him confidence.
“I believe I’m feeling really good about myself and my abilities. I’ve put a lot of effort into knowing the tempo I need to bat at, which is more of a mental exercise than a technical one. I played one game in the most recent series we played against New Zealand here in India, but I missed the next two Test matches.
At that point, KL Rahul remarked, “I really took some time to think about how I could change things—what I was doing well and what I wasn’t.”
“I’ve had the confidence to just go out there and carry out my ideas ever since the England series, after I got some runs under my belt. I’ve made an effort to play cricket simply: observe the ball, score runs, and have fun. It’s lot simpler to accomplish that when you have runners in your rear,” he continued.
India finished Day 2 of the first Test with 448/5 in 128 overs. Dhruv Jurel and Ravindra Jadeja both smashed centuries apart from Rahul, giving the Shubman Gill-led team three centurions.
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