Virat Kohli backs KL Rahul to come good soon

KL Rahul’s lean patch that has resulted in the opener returning scores of 1,0 and 0 in the three matches of the ongoing T20I series against England has led to him receiving a lot of flak from the critics.

Rahul has had three different partners in the opening slot in the last three matches. He opened with Shikhar Dhawan in the first game, Ishan Kishan in the second, and then had Rohit Sharma for company in the third T20I. Having failed in the first two, certain experts were of the view that Rahul will be dropped for the third game to fit in Rohit Sharma who was rested for the first two games. However, the Indian team management decided to drop Suryakumar Yadav to bring Rohit into the XI and Rahul managed to save his place.

But after another failure, the voices against Rahul have only gotten louder. To the opener’s relief, skipper Virat Kohli and batting coach Vikram Rathour have stood like a rock defending the swashbuckling opener.

"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.

"Anybody can have a lean phase and KL has been our best batsman in T20 format. He is averaging 40 plus with a strike rate of 145 and 3 failures doesn't change the fact that he is the best batsman we have in this format," Vikram Rathour said after India lost the 3rd T20I by eight wickets against England in Ahmedabad.

"This is the time when we need to support him and I am absolutely sure he will come back out of the lean phase," the batting coach added.

Rahul had not played any competitive cricket since the white-ball leg of the Australia tour and the batting coach thinks that rustiness could be one of the reasons behind the lack of form. 

"I agree they do tend to get rusty when they are sitting out but the only thing we can do is to provide them practice. They are having a lot of net sessions and even on the middle (centre wickets). That's all they can do and we can just hope that one innings or one shot and they will be back in form,” Rathour concluded.