Sanjay Manjrekar’s advice to KL Rahul

KL Rahul has led the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in this year’s edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), the world’s most popular cricket franchise. His team was knocked out of the tournament after losing to Bangalore in the eliminator round on Wednesday.

Former Indian cricketer and now popular commentator Sanjay Manjrekar thinks that despite being the captain, Rahul could not fulfill the role of the main batsman in the team. The commentator advised Rahul to enjoy batting without any extra pressure in the future.

Against Bangalore, playing till the 19th over, Rahul could not present victory to the team in the innings of 58 runs from 79 balls. Popular commentator on ESPNcricinfo’s ‘T20 Time Out’ said that despite being the captain, Rahul could not be the main pillar of Lucknow’s batting.

Manjrekar said, ”We have seen enough of Rahul’s game. Now we know when he will become a player, a captain, a key player in the team… I mean, Virat Kohli likes that kind of responsibility. Dhoni likes it. I think Rohit Sharma also likes this kind of responsibility except for this season. However, Rahul may not be naturally fit to take on such responsibilities. Their strength is a little different, maybe not Rahul’s. ”

Manjrekar added: “As a coach, I want to make it clear to him that I do not expect you to win the match. You just go down to the field and have fun. Then you will see, that the results have started coming. So, I think his strike rate in international cricket is much better than IPL. Because he is just one of the many batsmen out there. He plays there with Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and others, so he can match himself there.”

Seeing the innings against Bangalore, Manjrekar remembered the innings played by Rahul in the Punjab jersey. “We have seen something like this in Rahul’s innings before when he was the captain of the Punjab Kings,” he said. ”They (Punjab) could not chase the run, ” he added.

”Rahul would have played up to the end; they might have lost three or four wickets and Pooran (Nicholas) would have come to the batting. The same picture here. For example, (in the LSG innings) Evin Lewis, Krunal Pandya came to bat in the last two overs. A little earlier (Marcus) Stoinis. So, they have to work on these.”