Being the leading performer of a team comes with its set of challenges. KL Rahul is realising it fast. He is not just the captain of Kings XI Punjab, but also the IPL’s leading scorer and the team’s first-choice wicketkeeper too.
With so many hats to wear, the pressure is clearly on Rahul to come up trumps every single time. In a batting line-up, which with the exception of Mayank Agarwal is yet to fire in unison consistently, the tall opener seems to have assigned himself a sheet anchor’s role to last till the end and give KXIP’s score a fillip in the late overs. Sometimes that may backfire, like it looked to have on Sunday against Chennai Super Kings.
Rahul may realise some extra runs could have provided his bowlers that cushion. For a bowling line-up that has the worst economy of 16 RPO in the last five overs, extra help always matters.
After R Ashwin’s departure from KXIP, Rahul was always destined to lead the side. His position is assured now and he has repaid the faith. But rather than putting too much pressure on himself, Rahul would do better to get some of his destructive batting style back into play. KXIP is a top heavy side with a bowling that has often wavered. So the captain needs a different approach to pull his side out of the last spot that it finds itself in after Sunday’s loss to CSK.
Source: IPLT20.com