IPL 2020 | Thereās too much being made of KL Rahulās strike rate, reckons Ajit Agarkar
Ajit Agarkar has reckoned that thereās too much being made out of KL Rahulās strike rate and praised the KXIP skipper for playing beautiful knocks in tough conditions. He added that itās very difficult to make Gayle sit, but he doesnāt want KXIP to disturb their opening combination even for Gayle.
Recently, apart from sub-par captaincy, KXIP skipper KL Rahul has been under the scanner for having a low strike rate and putting pressure on the batting lineup to accelerate as soon as they arrive. Although he has been the Orange Cap holder, apart from a brilliant unbeaten hundred against RCB, in which he played with a strike rate of 191, his best strike rate has been 127 in the other six games, resulting in people questioning his strokeplay.Ā
However, former Indian cricketer Ajit Agarkar reckoned that thereās too much being made out of Rahul's strike rate and pointed out that heās still the leading run-scorer in the tournament, having scored 387 runs in 7 matches. He praised Rahul for playing beautiful innings in difficult situations.Ā
āI think thereās too much being made of his strike rate. Perhaps he can play a little quicker but heās still getting heaps of runs. I mean heās still the leading run-scorer in this competition so Iām not too fast with the way heās playing, to be honest. In the couple of innings that weāve seen live, heās batted beautifully in not so easy conditions and batted the situation. Itās just that they havenāt gotten over the line,ā Agarkar said in ESPN Cricinfo's "T20 Time Out".Ā
There has been lots of talk around bringing Chris Gayle into the lineup to change the fortunes of the Punjab based team. Yet to make an appearance in this edition of IPL, Gayle was supposed to be in the playing eleven in the previous match for KXIP, but the big-man suffered food poisoning and hence was ruled out of the match. However, he is fit now and is available for selection for the match against RCB.Ā
But Agarkar suggested that it would be a bad move on the part of Punjab to break the in-form opening combination of Mayank Agarwal and Rahul.Ā
āWhen you talk about Chris Gayle itās very difficult to say donāt bring in Gayle. Itās a hard one I mean heās been one of the greats of T20 cricket. Donāt quite know what kind of form or fitness heās in. Iām not a big fan of that move. Having seen Mayank and KL Rahul enough this season, you donāt want to disturb that even if itās with the Chris Gayle. So, if they do that then one of them has to drop down the order and for me, I donāt think thatās the best move,ā He said.Ā