KL Rahul dominated last season’s Indian Premier League with his destructive batting. He ended up being the highest run-scorer. KL Rahul tends to start it slowly and build up at the end for Punjab Kings.
Last year KL Rahul had a strike rate of 129.35. From being an aggressive opener, KL switched to an anchor’s role. His lack of intent in the Powerplay may have cost his team a playoff spot as they lost a couple of close matches from winning positions.
Wasim Jaffer: We Will See Aggressive KL Rahul This Year For Sure
Wasim Jaffer, Punjab Kings batting coach, says skipper KL Rahul will bat more aggressively this season. Punjab Kings batting coach Wasim Jaffer with TOI, “KL batted a little timidly last season. He probably batted deeper because there was not much batting after No. 5, and Glenn Maxwell was not firing. He took that responsibility on himself to try and stay at the crease and get the job done. This time around, everyone will see an aggressive KL Rahul for sure.”
KL Rahul had a horrible form in the recent T20 series vs England and Rahul’s return in the form of ODIs will be a relief for Punjab Kings. KL Rahul is the most important player for Punjab as he is a Captain, Opening Batsmen and Wicketkeeper. Wasim Jaffer was asked about the poor form KL Rahul had in T20s recently.
“It can happen to any player. The more games he played, the better he became. Yes, he had a poor T20 series, but it did not make him a bad batsman. He has scored centuries in all three formats and knows his game better than anyone else. In the ODIs, he showed why he is such a special player,” said Jaffer
Punjab Kings can line up with KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Dawid Malan, Nicolas Pooran in the start but they have missed someone at No. 5, 6, or 7, who can up the ante in the last four or five overs. Punjab Kings still don’t have promising finishers and Big guns like Mumbai, Chennai will be targeting this.
We’ve already seen how inconsistent Punjab Kings overseas players are last year. Glenn Maxwell was not firing, Chris Jordan and Chris Gayle just had a few stand out games. Punjab Kings only won 1 match in their first 7 matches last year. They’ll be hoping to improve this stat in IPL 2021.
