Nobody can fill MS Dhoni's place: KL Rahul

India’s newly-appointed limited-overs vice-captain KL Rahul will be filling in former Indian captain MS Dhoni’s shoes as he will don the gloves in the upcoming Australia tour in ODI and T20I series. Rahul had emerged as the potential wicketkeeper-batsman for the Indian team after his decent performance with both the gloves and the willow in the Australia tour of India and India tour of New Zealand earlier this year.

KL is in his prime form as he was adjudged with the Orange cap in the just-concluded 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The right-hander collected 670 runs in 14 matches at an average and strike rate of 55.83 and 129.34 respectively for his IPL franchise Kings XI Punjab (KXIP). He had also kept the wickets for Punjab.

Ahead of India’s tour of Australia, Rahul spoke at length about Dhoni’s contribution to the Indian cricket team as a wicketkeeper. Rahul believes that nobody can fill in the former captain’s shoes but he will try his best to essay the role perfectly. Speaking about his equation with the spinners, KL opined that he will try to give his inputs to them regarding the length, pace, or field placement.

Hopefully, I can get better at reading the game: KL Rahul

“Nobody can fill MS Dhoni’s place. He has shown us how a wicketkeeper-batsman’s role ought to be fulfilled. So we have learnt a lot from him. I share a decent understanding with Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav and will probably give them feedback about what I feel is a better length or pace to bowl or if we can change the field set… anybody donning the gloves will have that responsibility,” Rahul told SportsStar in an interview.

KXIP skipper further added that he enjoyed keeping wickets for India during the New Zealand tour in white-ball format and hopes to improve his ability to read the game and giving good insights to both captain and bowlers from behind the stumps.

“I’ve done this in one series in New Zealand and I quite enjoyed it… hopefully, I can get better at reading the game and give good feedback to the bowlers and the captain,” Rahul concluded.