- Thursday, May 09, 2024
The ace batter was recently declared fit for the Indian Premier League after he missed the last four Tests against England.
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE 2024 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) will be special since the fate of a number of players who aspire to represent their nations in the T20 World Cup scheduled soon after will be decided in the tournament. One among them is Indian wicket-keeper-batter KL Rahul, who has been struggling with injuries of late.
The 31-year-old, who could play only one of the five Tests that India played against England at home recently, has been declared fit for the IPL in which he will lead Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and according to the franchise’s coach Justin Langer, if he succeeds to lead the team to their maiden IPL crown this year, Rahul will be automatically rewarded with a berth in the India squad for the T20 World Cup slated to be held in the West Indies and the US in June.
Langer, a former Australia opener and coach of his country’s national side, wants the LSG’s national hopefuls to “concentrate” on doing well for the franchise first.
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Rahul, who is coming back from a quadricep injury that he sustained in the first Test against England in Hyderabad in January and went to London for treatment, is not expected to keep wickets in the initial stage of the IPL. Rahul joined the National Cricket Academy after returning home to get back to shape. He is yet not a certainty in India’s squad for the T20 World Cup and only a good show in the upcoming IPL with both the bat and gloves could earn him a spot.
Asked how he would balance his skipper’s personal ambition with the team’s interests, Langer said it isn’t all that complicated.
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“If the team does well, everyone gets rewarded. If KL can captain LSG to IPL title, that means he would have captained well, batted well and kept wickets well,” Langer replied to a query by news agency Press Trust of India during a season-opening media interaction on Wednesday (20).
Apart from Rahul, the other serious T20 World Cup contender from the LSG is leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi.
“The message for players, like KL or Bishi (Bishnoi) will be that more they concentrate on playing well for LSG, their chances (of WT20 call-up) will increase,” the coach, who guided Australia to their maiden T20 World Cup title in 2021, said.
Rahul is expected to link up with the team on Wednesday evening due to a flight delay but the former Australian opener didn’t say a word about when the star player will start keeping in the tournament.
Rahul has played 118 matches in the IPL since 2013 in which he has scored 4,163 runs at a strike rate of 134.42 with four centuries and 33 fifties.
(With PTI inputs)
