“He Switches On And Switches Off”: Anil Kumble On KL Rahul’s Approach In T20 Cricket

Indian cricket team might have won its first two matches of the ongoing T20 World Cup 2022, but not everything is right in the squad at the moment. The form of opening batting KL Rahul has been under question for a long time. Sometimes it’s Rahul’s strike-rate that becomes a matter of discussion, on other occasions, it’s his lack of intent. Anil Kumble, who has coached Rahul during the duo’s time together at Punjab Kings in the Indian Premier League (IPL), has opened up on the approach that the batter possesses.

Kumble, in a conversation on ESPNCricinfo, revealed that Rahul believed in batting deeper at Punjab since the team’s middle-order lacked reliability. However, that isn’t the case with the Indian team.

“In the IPL it was a different conversation. All of us kept saying, look, you are the best player. Just go out and bat normally. From ball one, go hard, do what you are good out,” he said.

“Especially in the powerplay, I don’t think any bowler can keep him quiet. But I think when he played franchise cricket, he felt that he needed to bat longer because of the lineup he had and he was captain. You can say what you want from the outside but you can’t control what happens on the field.”

Jumbo then pointed out the different setup that Rahul has in the Indian team. Yet, Kumble feels Rahul “switches on and switches off” for some reason.

“With the Indian team, it is quite different. I think his role is to just go out there and bat. When I was coach, I didn’t want that to change, I just wanted him to go and be what he is, dictate terms from ball one. I think he sort of switches on and switches for whatever reason. We saw in his last game for Punjab against Chennai where we had to get those runs and have a crack at the net run rate, we saw what he can do. He just smashed everyone and Chennai had some good international bowlers,” the legendary leg-spinner further pointed out.

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Kumble doesn’t feel Rahul needs to have a ‘conversation’ with anyone about his game. It’s all about him remaining ‘switched on’ and feeling that he can deliver.

“So it is just a matter of Rahul switching on. It is not about any conversation any of us can have, it is just about him feeling that today is when I will start hitting shots or be tentative. We don’t know,” the iconic cricketer asserted.