'We were more ready this time and we were ready for a fight' - KL Rahul opens up after Cape Town victory

KL Rahul speaks exclusively with Star Sports on team readiness and mentality against South Africa at Cape Town, “There was a little bit of change of the planning and attitude only. I mean we can’t say that we weren’t ready during the last test match. We were ready but there are situations where the opposition really blasts you out of the test match or we are not used to it.

Since last 4-5 years, we’ve been a team that’s really competed and we have won series outside of India, so we weren’t ready for it and it was a huge hit for us, but it speaks volumes of how much we enjoy playing test cricket and how much we value playing for our country and how much test victories outside of India mean to us. So, it was just a mental shift during the turnaround time of one day. 

We were more ready this time and we were ready for a fight. We wanted to get this win and just do our job really well. I think we weren’t really 100% during our last match in terms of batting or bowling. We were prepared, but that extra edge or extra fire was missing, credit to South Africa as well, that they didn’t allowed us to reach to that confidence. They bowled us out very cheaply in both the innings. So, we were really happy that we could bounce off so well.“

KL Rahul exclusively shared his thoughts on coming back from injury stronger than ever before, “When I first had injury, initially it was very frustrating for me, but honestly staying alone was the best thing for me. I was not able to score good runs before injury and there was a lot of criticism and I wasn’t enjoying my cricket and being in the ground and getting criticized so often.

So that break really helped me and when I started training after surgery, there was some freshness and new energy within me. I realized how much I love the game and how much I miss playing the game, whether it is doing well or not doing well, that’s secondary but just being on the field wearing the blues or wearing the whites you really sense and understand how much you love this game, and this is all we’ve always done since we were kids.”

“So, even during my time off, even my parents asked, my friends asked what else did you do, what are your hobbies, but I took 3-4 months to realize there are no other hobbies, but just playing cricket. So that was the mental switch, that whatever opportunities you get, you enjoy it, whether you do well or not do well. After so many injuries, I do walk in with the mind-set that it will all end at some point, but you might enjoy what you have in front of you rather than thinking of criticism that you’ll be out of the team, so yes that was the mental switch that happened that I’ve already been dropped, already been injured, already had bad performances so I was like okay enjoy, rather enjoy all of it.

You can’t really control it, so I go in with that attitude that keep going out there and like I just told Irfan bhai that rather than thinking about self, whenever I walk in I just try to see the scoreboard, try to see the situation of the game and realize that whatever I can do for the betterment of the game, that makes it a bit more easier and enjoyable.”