KL Rahul during press conference on the eve of second ODI against England. Picture Credit: BCCI
Indian batsman KL Rahul has opened on his batting form ahead of the second ODI against England at Pune on Friday. While Rahul struggled to get amid the runs in the T20I series and was even dropped in the last game of the five-match series, he looked far more comfortable in the opening ODI against the Three Lions scoring an unbeaten 62 off 43 deliveries to help the Men in Blue post a total in excess of 300 while batting first.
It is worth noting that in the recently-concluded T20I series against England, Rahul disappointed with the scores of 1, 0, 0 and 14 before getting dropped in the final game. Highlighting his plethora of runs in the series, Rahul said, "You do feel disappointed."
"Yes, I mean, this (not getting runs) is part of the journey and everybody goes through this. I didn't do anything different or wasn't too stressed," he added.
The 28-year-old batted at the number five position in the first ODI and is expected to bat at the same spot for the remaining two matches of the series.
I didn't want to sit back and overthink: Rahul
While Rahul was named in the Indian squad for all-three formats against Australia, he did not get to play a single Test match, even sustaining an injury during the red-ball fixtures. After completing his rehab, Rahul then joined the Indian team for the home Tests against England but yet again failed to find a spot for himself in the Playing XI. The first T20I between the three Lions and India was Rahul's first match in over three months, last playing in the third T20I against Australia in which he had failed to open his account.
"It's not always going to go your way, you need to be patient at times," Rahul said reflecting on his lean patch. "I didn't want to sit back and overthink about 3 or 4 bad performances," he went on.
Courtesy of a great performance set up by the partnership between Rahul and debutant Krunal Pandya (58*) in the Indian innings and backed up by an equally impressive show by the bowlers, Team India defeated England by 66 runs to go 1-0 up in the series