KL Rahul playing freely due to him having an assured place in starting XI, believes Zaheer Khan

While 2019 was the year of Rohit Sharma, it seems like KL Rahul is all set to follow his fellow opener's footsteps and own 2020 like a boss. What started with a couple of well constructed big knocks has now turned into a string of them as Rahul sits at the top of the order with nine 50+ scores in his last 14 innings.

Former India tearaway Zaheer Khan hailed Rahul’s growing confidence as his driving force. Zaheer applauded the way Rahul has been constructing his innings and turning them into big and match-winning knocks.

“I think he (Rahul) is enjoying this phase. You can see that he is calm, he is composed. He is very well assured to himself rather than to anyone else. He is talking that confidence forward and you can see it with the body language as well, Zaheer said on Cricbuzz Live. “When you are going through this kind of phase it is all about sticking to the routine and staying in that zone. When you stay in that zone, it’s only gotta be better from here.”

The 41-year-old believes that a major source of Rahul’s brilliant run of form is accounted to the fact that the pressure of selection is now off his head. The breakout star of 2019 is now taking big strides towards cementing his place in the side, having also taken up guard behind the stumps.

“He is got that monkey off his back that he is going to be part of the playing eleven and not going to be part of XI. He is feeling at home. You can see that and that’s a great plus.”