Wasim Jaffer calls KL Rahul’s knock against RCB “painful”, suggest LSG skipper to change his intent

Wasim Jaffer calls KL Rahul’s knock against RCB “painful”, suggest LSG skipper to change his intent

Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) captain KL Rahul was the centre of criticism for his sluggish knock in a high-scoring thriller against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on Monday. The LSG captain, while chasing 213, got out after scoring 18 runs off 20 balls. Rahul looked uneasy during his stay at the crease and struggled to bat freely. This was not the first time, Rahul scored runs at a questionable strike rate. It has been the case for the premium batter for a while now.

This has not sat well with former India cricketer Wasim Jaffer who has criticized the batter for his slow knock in a high-scoring encounter. Jaffer called Rahul’s knock “painful to watch”. The Punjab Kings batting coach also suggested the batter changes his intent.

“I am surprised. It was a bit painful as well. When you are chasing 213 and you are the captain, you need to lead from the front,” Jaffer told ESPNcricinfo.

“Rahul will have to change his intent. LSG have a very good batting line-up. In the current team, Krunal Pandya hasn’t fired yet, same with Deepak Hooda. Also, there is a lot of depth in the batting. He will need to show some intent because the team has really good back-ups. It’s not like LSG would not be able to score runs if Rahul gets out,” he added.

Related: WATCH: Ayush Badoni hits a six but gets out hit wicket during RCB vs LSG

Rahul defends his slow knock

KL Rahul

While experts criticized Rahul for his approach, the LSG skipper defended his knock saying he played according to the situation.

“Not ideal for me, I want to score more runs and get the strike rate up as well. We’ve played on two tough Lucknow wickets, and today we lost 3 wickets so I went slower. I wanted to stay till the end and play with Nicky,” said Rahul.

Notably, Rahul has managed scores of 18 (20), 35 (31), 20 (18), and 8 (12) in the four matches played so far.

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