‘KL Rahul doesn’t believe in himself. He doesn’t know…’: Sunil Gavaskar’s hard-hitting assessment

Rahul has gone out on both the outside and inside edges in this World Cup so far but does he really have any technical faults? Gavaskar thinks the problem is in the mindset. The former captain of India believes Rahul does not have enough belief in his abilities.

One of the striking features of India’s only practice session ahead of the must-win T20 World Cup match against Bangladesh in Adelaide was the long chat between Virat Kohli and KL Rahul where the former India captain did the majority of the talking. With scores of 0, 9 and 9 against Pakistan, the Netherlands and South Africa, Rahul has had a torrid World Cup so far. On the other hand, Kohli, along with Suryakumar Yadav, has been India’s most prolific run-scorer in the tournament so far. It was wonderful to see Kohli donning the coach’s hat and trying to iron out the wrinkles in the vice-captain’s technique. And who better than Kohli to do it? He is currently the highest run-scorer in T20Is and is also India’s highest run-scorer in the T20 World Cup.

Reacting to Kohli’s chat with Rahul, legendary India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar said Kohli could be telling Rahul about being tight outside the off stump. “He’s (Kohli) the senior player, has bags of runs in every format, this has been his favourite ground, and he’ll be able to tell him what to do. I think he was trying to say that the ball outside off stump could cause trouble to anybody early in the innings when you are not certain about your off stump. You are not certain where the ball is gonna move. You tend to play at deliveries which you would otherwise leave and in this format, you can’t afford to leave deliveries. He’s got out a couple of times dragging the ball onto his stumps, at Perth, the extra bounce did him but he’s a class act, let’s not forget that,” Gavaskar said in India Today.

Rahul has gone out on both the outside and inside edges in this World Cup so far but does he really have any technical faults? Gavaskar thinks the problem is in the mindset. The former captain of India believes Rahul does not have enough belief in his abilities.

“Every time I see Rahul not scoring runs, I get the impression, he does not actually know the kind of ability he has. He doesn’t seem to believe in himself. He is a fabulous player and has loads of ability. He’s got to start saying ‘I’m gonna go and knock the stuffing out of the ball’. He’s got to have that kind of attitude. I want him to swagger. It will make a whole difference,” he added.