Nervous to keep for India due to comparisons with MS Dhoni, admits KL Rahul
KL Rahul has revealed that was nervous to keep for India because of the crowd pressure and the fact that he was being seen as MS Dhoni’s replacement. Rahul kept the wickets in the limited-overs series against Australia in January this year and also during the Indian team's tour to New Zealand.
Since the start of this year, KL Rahul was assigned with wicketkeeping duties for Team India and he has been executing it pretty well. According to the 28-year-old, there is “immense” pressure associated with the keeping duties due to the legendary MS Dhoni’s years of influence in the setup. The former Indian captain was last seen in Team India colours during the semifinal game against New Zealand, in the 2019 World Cup in England.
"I was nervous when I was doing it for India because of the crowd pressure. If you fumble, people feel that you cannot replace MS Dhoni. The pressure of replacing a legendary wicket-keeper like MSD was immense as it involved people accepting someone else behind the stumps," Rahul was quoted as saying by India Today.
Rahul, who has an experience of 32 ODIs and 42 T20Is with Team India, said that wicketkeeping is not something new to him as he has kept wickets in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and also for his state team Karnataka.
"People who follow cricket know that I haven't been away from wicket-keeping for too long as I donned the gloves in the IPL and every time I played for Karnataka. I am always in touch with wicket-keeping but am also somebody who is more than willing to take up the role if the team needs me to," he added.
Comments
Leave a comment0 Comments