ICC World Cup 2019 | We can’t always think it’s 300-run wicket, KL Rahul defends India’s middle-order
KL Rahul has come to the defence of the inconsistent Indian middle-order stating that not every wicket in England has been 300-run target worthy and praised India’s individual batting prowess. The back-up opener also revealed India’s batting plan that led to their resounding win against West Indies.
India are the only team that are still unbeaten in the World Cup so far, and the ride hasn’t always been smooth. The Men in Blue have lost Shikhar Dhawan with a finger injury and Bhuvneshwar Kumar also gave an early scare. As far as the victories were concerned, India have been taken right to the wire by an Afghanistan side before Windies made India's batting look average.
Amongst others, Rahul has held the fort well after being pushed to the opening slot following Dhawan's injury. He has scores of 57, 30 and 48 in the last three games playing second or third fiddle to either Rohit Sharma or Virat Kohli from time to time. However, while the first three batsmen have taken India out of the mud most of the times, it is the middle order that has faltered.
The No. 4 position has still been a conundrum for India and every time the team has failed to make it past 300, the middle-order has been criticized. Rahul, however, has stated that not every pitch would be good enough to post a 300 plus target.
"We can't always go in thinking it's a 300 wicket. The last two wickets haven't been the easiest to bat. Yet, without any of us scoring a hundred, we still managed to get 240 and 260, which is great. It only gives us more confidence in our batting unit, knowing that if one or two of us go on to get a big 50 or a big hundred, it will just make it easier to get to 300," said Rahul, reported TOI.
After posting a seemingly below-par target of 225 against Afghanistan, India had just managed to cross the respectable threshold of 250 against the Windies with some late heroics by MS Dhoni seeing India post a target of 268/7. However, while Windies pacer Kemar Roach called it a "below par" total, Rahul felt it was just about a good total in the given condition. Rahul also revealed India’s batting strategy in the game.
"After the first 10 overs, the message we sent to the dressing room was that this is not a 300, 330 wicket; it's a 260, 270 wicket. We need to play that way. We know that if there are two set batsmen by the 35th-40th over, we will end up getting maybe 10, 15 runs extra, which didn't happen, but we still managed to get 260 on this wicket," he explained.
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