KL, the first batter Rahul’s performance in the ongoing T20 World Cup has been poor, and he scored just 9 runs off of 14 balls against South Africa. Rahul has scored 4, 9, and 9 in the three games that India has played thus far. The right-handed batter has been unable to even rotate the strike continuously and has appeared to be entirely out of sorts. Sunil Gavaskar, a former captain of India, has stated that Paddy Upton, a mental fitness coach, must intervene in order to boost the batter’s confidence.
“We have Paddy Upton as the mental conditioning coach and if he has not done anything with him. While the batting coach can tell him his mistakes, there is a need for the mental conditioning coach to talk with the player to increase his confidence. He should tell Rahul that he has got the talent and he can score big runs,” Gavaskar said.
“Look, you have just played three matches and you have to play a total of 5 matches in the Super 12 stage. You do not have any other opener, I do not think you have an opener who can take the place of Rahul. So you need to show patience with him, we know what he can do when he is in full flow. I think someone needs to have a word with him,” he added.
South Africa, spearheaded by Temba Bavuma, outplayed India in all areas on Sunday at Optus Stadium in Perth’s T20 World Cup Group 2 Super 12 encounter, winning by a margin of five wickets.
After choosing to bat first, Rohit Sharma and company were frightened by the Proteas’ quick bowling, which resulted to cheap dismissals of players like Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, and Hardik Pandya. The sole shining batsman was Suryakumar Yadav, who scored 68 runs off just 40 balls while hitting six fours and three sixes. Aiden Markram and David Miller each scored fifty runs for South Africa as they chased down 134, taking five wickets in the process.
