KL Rahul ‘heartbroken’ after India’s World Cup exit

During the warm-up match in Cardiff, KL Rahul scored a sparkling century against Bangladesh. The knock was impressive enough to get him into the eleven for the main round of the 2019 World Cup. In a couple of games in the middle-order, Rahul couldn’t make much of an impact. However, Shikhar Dhawan injured his thumb in the match versus Australia at the Kennington Oval in London.

Dhawan’s injury meant that Rahul had the responsibility of opening the batting alongside Rohit Sharma, who ended the tournament with as many as five centuries. In the three games against Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Windies, Rahul got starts, but couldn’t convert them. To add to his agony, the 27-year-old couldn’t open his account against England at the Edgbaston in Birmingham.

A tragic end to a decent campaign for KL Rahul

But in the very next game, he turned up with an impressive 77 against Mashrafe Mortaza’s Bangladesh. In that encounter, he was also involved in a 180-run opening wicket stand with Rohit. The Karnataka batter raced away to his second ODI ton in the last league match against Sri Lanka and helped his team win the match by seven wickets.

A lot was expected of him in the semi-final against New Zealand at the Old Trafford in Manchester. After the Black Caps set a target of 240, the Men in Blue lost both Rohit and Virat Kohli, their skipper, in pretty quick succession. Thereafter, Rahul fell prey to Matt Henry in the fourth over, leaving his team at 5/3 in 3.1 overs. The likes of MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja got India back into the game.

The duo put on 116 for the seventh wicket, but all the efforts went in vain as Kohli’s men slumped to a defeat by 18 runs. Subsequently, they bowed out of the mega event, much to the players’ and fans’ disappointment. Meanwhile, Rahul is heartbroken following India’s exit from the tournament. The youngster posted a couple of photos to express his emotions for the last six weeks.

The batsman captioned the pictures and wrote, “Heartbreaking that our dreams have come to an end. As a team and as a nation we’ve stood strong together through the last 6weeks. Big thank you and lots of love to everyone ????????,”

Here is Rahul’s post

View this post on Instagram

Heartbreaking that our dreams have come to an end.As a team and as a nation we've stood strong together through the last 6weeks. Big thank you and lots of love to everyone 🇮🇳💙

A post shared by KL Rahul👑 (@rahulkl) on Jul 11, 2019 at 2:49am PDT