While KL Rahul was attending the pre-match press conference ahead of the ODI series against South Africa yesterday, he was asked a few direct and slightly uncomfortable questions by the journalists and one of them was related to his IPL captaincy as well. KL Rahul is now the new vice captain of India in white-ball cricket and there are speculations that because of Rohit Sharma’s iffy fitness, he might also be appointed the new test captain of India.
As Rohit Sharma is out of the South Africa tour, Rahul is leading the Indian team in the 3-match ODI series against South Africa and while people have not seen enough of him as a captain at the international level yet, many journalists seem to have already formed an opinion on his captaincy based on how he has fared as a captain in the IPL while leading Punjab Kings in the last couple of years.
KL Rahul was the captain of Punjab Kings in the last two IPLs and Punjab, under his leadership, failed to qualify for the playoffs twice in a trot. While there were a lot of issues behind the dismal performance of Punjab, Rahul’s leadership was also something which was under scrutiny and came for a bit of criticism. Rahul has, however, now moved on from Punjab and the reports suggest the Indian vice captain might lead the new Lucknow franchise in the next IPL. Lucknow is looking to sign him as one of their drafts picks before the mega auction coming up.
KL Rahul was not particularly amused when reminded of his captaincy record in IPL
Rahul looked visibly displeased when the journalist reminded him about his IPL record so far, but he kept his calm and decided to answer with a slightly sarcastic tone, telling the journalist that the start that he has just presented to him is going to give him a lot of confidence going forward. Rahul, however, further added that he tries to remain in a balanced frame of mind whether the result goes in his favor or not as a captain.
😂😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/FVW6bqlRX8
— Ù‹ (@18inarow) January 18, 2022
The 29-year old also insisted that despite India lost the test match under his captaincy at Jo’burg when Virat Kohli was out due to back spasm, there were still a lot of learnings for him from that game which he will like to take forward and improve himself as a captain.
