By He may have registered consecutive ducks in the last two matches, but KL Rahul has received the backing of India captain Virat Kohli, who feels the batsman is a ‘champion player’ in T20 cricket and continues to be one of the key India batsmen along with Rohit Sharma at the top.
Despite putting up scores of 0, 1, 0 in his last three T20I matches for India prior to the England game on Tuesday, Kohli and India persisted with Rahul, even if it meant leaving out Suryakumar Yadav.
With Rohit returning, India opted to push Ishan Kishan at No. 3. This meant that Kohli himself sacrificed his preferred spot and batted at No. 4 on Tuesday. Although Rahul was clean bowled by Mark Wood for a four-ball duck, Kohli feels it is just a matter of time before the batsman finds his groove back.
“I was going through a lean patch about two games ago. He (KL Rahul) has been a champion player. If you look at his stats in the last 2-3 years, they are probably better than anyone in T20,” Kohli said at the post-match presentation ceremony after England beat India by eight wickets to take a 2-1 lead.
