After dominating the league stage for most part of the season, Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) failed to replicate the show in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 play-offs, losing the eliminator against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by 14 runs. After inviting RCB to bat first, LSG were blown away by Rajat Patidar’s imperious show, who went on to smash 112* off 54 balls. His innings helped RCB pile a massive 207/4 on the board and LSG managed 193/6 in response.
KL Rahul showed some resistance, dragging LSG close to the target, but his approach came under scrutiny with former cricketer turned analyst Sanjay Manjrekar questioning his abilities. Rahul scored 79 off 58 balls.
Speaking on ESPNcricinfo’s show T20 Time:Out, Manjrekar said: “We’ve seen enough of KL Rahul to now know that when he becomes this player, the captain, the key player of the side… I mean Virat Kohli loves that kind of responsibility. Dhoni loved it. I think Rohit Sharma, barring this season, generally likes that kind of responsibility. Maybe KL Rahul temperamentally is not suited to take this kind of responsibility where he is the man who’s got to get the job done. They are just made of different mettle and maybe KL Rahul isn’t.
“As a coach, I would drill that into his head to tell him that I’m not expecting you to win the game. You just go and have fun, and funnily enough, you’ll see the results start coming and that’s why I believe he has a much better strike rate at the international level rather than at the IPL level because he’s just one of the many batters. He’s playing alongside Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma and the others, so he just goes out there and expresses himself.”
