IPL 2018 | KL Rahul reveals trying to bat deep was the plan

Rahul has been under criticism lately for not converting his solid starts into big scores for the team. In this edition of IPL, he has provided KXIP with explosive starts upfront but hasn’t been able to bat till the end. However, he turned the things around in the match against Rajasthan Royals. Rahul showed immense maturity and batted till the end for his team and made sure that his team got over the victory line without any hiccups. 

Rahul felt that it was important as an opener to convert the good starts into big scores for the team. He stated that an opener has to bat till the last to do the most damage.  

"I want to get as many runs as I can in the powerplay. (However,) I think I haven't converted those starts into big runs for the team; as an opening batsman that's what is crucial," Rahul told the IPL website www.iplt20.com.

“If you get off to a good start, even if you get the run-rate down a bit in the middle overs, if you are set till the end you can do the most damage.”

Rahul, who has scored 376 runs in the 9 matches, started off his innings against RR cautiously. He made 18 off his first 15 deliveries, which was very unlike him. However, once he got near to his fifty he changed his gears and went all guns blazing to get Punjab a win after 2 losses. Rahul took 44 balls to get to his fifty, which was the slowest in his IPL career, but it ended up being his highest score in the Twenty20 tournament. Pointing out the difference in his approach, he revealed that it was his deliberate attempt to bat till the end and was happy that it helped his team.

“Those were the things I was thinking about sitting back at home (during the break). I wanted to come here with a fresher approach and try to win as many games as I can. (I wanted to) try to bat deep in the innings and that was the plan and I am very happy that it paid off today,” he said.