In 2019, when KL Rahul went to Australia as a part of India’s Test squad, many questions were posed on his technique. He had a terrible series and was excluded from the team for some months to work on his game. After a strong domestic season, he made his way back into the colored outfit and since then, he has been one of the brightest prospects for the Men in Blue.
Not only he is scoring runs, but the way he is effortlessly playing big knocks is something that everyone expected from him. He looks confident and does not shy away from playing some unorthodox cricket too.
Talking about Rahul’s technique and approach in white-ball cricket after the first ODI against New Zealand, former Indian cricketer and current commentator Sanjay Manjrekar has heaped praises on the right-hand batsman for making 360-degree batting look so simple.
Taking it to Twitter, Manjrekar described him as a
“360-degree batsman” and noted that only KL Rahul can make it look so classical. “Only K L Rahul can make 360 degrees batting look orthodox and classical,”
Manjrekar wrote in his tweet.
Only K L Rahul can make 360 degrees batting look orthodox and classical.
— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) February 6, 2020
The only player who is regarded as a 360-degree player in the cricketing world is none other than legendary South African batsman, AB de Villiers. Rahul gave some glimpses of playing some unique shots in the first ODI game and seems to be working on his technique to score runs all around the park.
But all his efforts went in vain as India lost the first ODI by
four wickets. The Men in Blue posted a mammoth total of 347 on the scoreboard, all thanks to Shreyas Iyer’s maiden ODI century and KL Rahul’s swashbuckling 88. Indian skipper Virat Kohli also scored a half-century before getting out and Kedar Jadhav played an important cameo to take their team to the total.
Chasing 348, veteran Ross Taylor smashed a century to take his team over the line. Some amazing contributions from Henry Nicholls and
Tom Latham made sure that the Black Caps were always in the game. This win ends the five-match losing streak for New Zealand in this tour.
In the process, Ross Taylor became the first batsman to score more than 2000 runs at Seddon Park in Hamilton. Also, he has scored 19 centuries while batting at number four position – the most by any batsman in the world.
The second ODI will take place on February 8 in Auckland.
