AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli helped me to improve as a limited over batsman – K L Rahul – 

 

K L Rahul primarily a Test Batsman, but after playing some outstanding knocks in the recently concluded IPL for Royal Challengers Bangalore, he changed the perception of being a Test Batsman only. His performance in IPL 2016 was brilliant to say the least. In the 12 innings that he played for RCB, he scored 397 runs at an average and strike-rate of 44.11 and 146.49 respectively, and by virtue of it he was selected in the national team for the upcoming Zimbabwe tour. He credits his improvement in limited over games to his Royal Challengers Bangalore team mates AB de Villiers and skipper Virat Kohli.

 

He said in the press confrence before leaving for Zimbabwe, “I spent time with Virat (Kohli) and AB (de Villiers) and asked them questions about what they thought I should do to improve my cricket and be successful in the shortest format. Their ideas and feedback did help me in improving my batting,” Rahul told reporters ahead of Indian  team’s departure to Zimbabwe”

 

K L Rahul is making his debut from this Zimbabwe tour. Before it, he has played 5 Tests for India, in which he has scored 256 runs at an average of 25.60 with two hundreds. In the upcoming Zimbabwe tour, he will open the batting for India as Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan have been rested. K L Rahul said, “I don’t know how the wickets are in Zimbabwe. It will be definitely challenging for the opening batsman and it’s a responsibility that I have enjoyed, to go out there and give a solid start to my team”.  He also said, “I would like to be in the playing XI and I don’t care where I play. It does not really matter where I bat”

 

K L rahul played for Royal Challengers Bngalore as a wicket-keeper batsman. He said about wicket-keeping, “I will get some time with MS Dhoni in Zimbabwe and my plan is to try to work with him on my wicket-keeping skills and see what feedback he has for me”

 

In the upcoming Zimbabwe tour India will play 3 ODIS and 3 T20Is. Mahendra Singh Dhoni will lead the Indian side.