KL Rahul comes up with a clever reply when asked 'if Virat Kohli's energy as a captain was being missed?'

Despite posting a stiff total on the board, Team India suffered a seven-wicket defeat to South Africa in the second ODI at Boland Park in Paarl on Friday. The bowlers failed to rise up to the occasion as the Proteas batters stitched some valuable partnerships regularly to register a famous win.

After losing the ODI series, India’s stand-in captain KL Rahul was asked whether the Men In Blue were missing Virat Kohli’s energy as skipper to which he came up with an interesting reply by saying that the energy has been ‘great’.

“The energy has been great, it’s been tough on the body staying in the bubbles. We love challenges and we have come short in the first two games, we will look ahead to the third game and try and win that one,” said KL Rahul during the post-match presentation.

During his captaincy reign, Kohli has been heard boosting the morale of the players on the field but there were no such signs in the last two ODIs. The batting icon, who was sacked from ODI captaincy in December shockingly relinquished his Test captaincy last week. The ex-skipper was involved in a verbal spat with the South African captain Temba Bavuma in the first game but there were no other animated moments from his end on the field other than that. He scored a vital 51 in the series-opener but failed to trouble the scorers in the second match.

KL Rahul scored a half-century in the 2nd ODI

Coming back to the contest, two quick jolts put India on the backfoot after Shikhar Dhawan and skipper KL Rahul had added a 63-run opening stand before Rahul (55) and a quickfire 71-ball 85 from wicketkeeper batter Rishabh Pant revived the Indian innings before Shardul Thakur’s unbeaten 40 propelled them to 287/6 from their 50 overs.

In reply, the Indian bowlers were unable to chip in with wickets as the Proteas batters scored freely and at a good rate. Opener Janneman Malan scored 91 before being bowled by Jasprit Bumrah but Aiden Markram and Rassie van der Dussen ensured no further damage was done as the hosts walked away with the game and the series.