KL Rahul has accumulated forty fifties over a span of twelve IPL seasons, but very few would have given him more joy than the one he scored for Delhi on Tuesday against Lucknow Super Giants, the franchise that unceremoniously parted ways with him last year.
Rahul scored an unbeaten 57, helping the Capitals complete their successful chase at Lucknow, where he brought up the Capitals’ eight-wicket victory with a six off Prince Yadav.
The thirty-three-year-old had captained Lucknow last season but was let go after a dispute with the owners; in a move that left most surprised, he was replaced by Rishabh Pant, another wicketkeeper-batsman.
Although he did not celebrate wildly, Rahul did raise his bat in celebration to acknowledge the number one on the back of his jersey for Delhi as he reached his final fifty mark—equivalent to three this season.
Despite missing one of the matches, he is already the most prolific in Delhi’s batting order this season and according to his former teammate from India, Pujara, it led to his success being attributed to his maturity.
He doesn’t want to dwell on the players let go by LSG and focus on the current, which in this case means solely enjoying the prospect of batting while being charmed, remarked the user.
“It’s positive to move on because that will also help him perform well for DC and even for the Indian team. That also benefits India as well because he is someone the Indian team also depends on, the way he’s batting.”
Rahul also marked the achievement as the fastest to reach 5,000 runs in IPL history, accomplishing it in 130 innings, five fewer than Australian David Warner.
Former England player Nick Knight was of the view that the burden of captaincy puts pressure on players which might be indirectly helpful or harmful to on-field performance. In his opinion, Rahul’s current form could be one of the perks of having stepped down from the captaincy as DC’s captain. Knight also proposed the idea that the best player doesn’t necessarily translate to the best captain.
“Captaincy can do funny things to you – sometimes you thrive on it, sometimes it’s a burden. Whether that’s had any impact, not being captain now, just being free being able to play, dictate and respond to the match situation,” he noted.
“There is this strange obsession in cricket that the best player must be the captain. Is that always the case? I’m not saying that KL Rahul or even Rishabh Pant is the case, but he is batting with too much freedom and looks to be very relaxed at the crease.”
On the other hand, with a newly signed $3.2 million deal with Lucknow, Pant became the Most Expensive Buy in IPL History, yet his continuous losing streak worsened after a strange two-ball duck, prompting Pujara to share his disbelief that Pant was batting at number seven, in the order’s last position.
“I genuinely don’t know what the thought process was,” he added. “There’s no doubt he should be batting up the order.”