I knew Dhoni will make me run a lot: KL Rahul

If there has been a player who has made giant strides in Indian cricket in the recent times, it has to be KL Rahul. The swashbuckling Indian batsman has the ability to play all the formats equally well. What works in his favor is his adaptability. Recently, when he smashed his maiden T20I century, he became only the 3rd player in the history of Indian cricket to have scored centuries in all the three formats.

However, he was unlucky to have ended up being on the losing side. In a conversation with the bcci.tv after his masterly knock, the young man spoke on his start in international career, batting alongside Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni, and his thoughts during India’s desperate effort to chase 245.

Speaking on the kind of start he has got in international cricket, Rahul was modest to admit that it has been a pretty good start. He asserted that the feeling of hitting a century in all formats would have been even more fruitful had the team won the match.

“Not a bad start for me at all. I just hope to carry on from and here and go from strength to strength. It is very disappointing to be on the losing side but what’s good to see is that we did not give up half way through. The West Indies had put up a big total for us to chase and what we spoke in the dressing room was to try to take the game as long as we could and the way everyone came and approached this innings was very good to see,” quoted KL Rahul.

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One of the key highlights of his knock was the way he handled the premier bowler of the opposition – Sunil Narine. Talking about his strategy against Narine, he said that it was just one of those days when he read Narine’s mind with perfection.

“It was just one of those days when whatever you thought the bowler was going to do, he just ended up doing that and I guess that doesn’t come too often in a batsmen’s life. It was one of those days and I was hitting the ball sweetly and was moving well,” said Rahul. He further added that he had faith in his ability to make it an interesting game.

“I just wanted to make sure that I stay there and bat for 20 overs and I knew if I batted till the end, I could make a game out of this. Happy with the approach, but disappointed with the result,” he added.

This was the first time Rahul batted with Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni. Speaking on his chemistry with Sharma, he quoted that they played their shots and backed themselves. They kept a check at the scoring rate midway through the innings and felt they were going at the right pace.

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“The partnership between Rohit and me was very crucial. We tried to keep it simple and did not want to complicate things. We knew it was a big target to chase and as soon as I went in, I started hitting from ball one or ball two. We played our cricketing shots, then see where we end up at the half way mark and by around the tenth over we felt like we were on par with the Windies score and we had a lot of batting power to come after us. We tried to play our shots and attack the bowlers that we felt we could go after. I think everybody batted really well,” he quoted on batting with Rohit Sharma.

Speaking on Dhoni, he was quick to cite that he knew Dhoni would make him run hard. He explained how Dhoni strategized the chase and was only unfortunate to have lost.

“As soon as he came in, I knew that he will make me run a lot. I was already tired by the time he came, but he kept on pushing me and like I said we just kept things simple out there in the middle. We required 13 runs an over. He said that even if we get 11-12 runs till the sixteenth over, it was ok and we could go big in the last couple of overs. We were favouring one end and hit sixes on that side and we knew that they did not have overs left from their main bowlers in the death. That was the plan and we just kept hitting well, kept connecting. We got 11-12 runs easily in an over. Just unfortunate it was one of those days when the game could’ve gone anywhere,” he conceded.