‘Rahul used to bat till 18th over, Maxwell faced 2 balls’: Ex-Pakistan captain | Cricket

KL Rahul’s strike-rate in T20 cricket has been a hot topic of discussion. In the recently-concluded IPL 2022, Rahul scored 616 runs and led his team the Lucknow Super Giants into the Playoffs. However, despite scoring two centuries, the rate at which Rahul scored his runs led to several debates, with many former cricketers pointing fingers at Rahul’s strike-rate. In the Eliminator against the Royal Challengers Bangalore, as LSG needed to knock off 208, Rahul drew plenty of flak for his 58-ball 79, especially because Rajat Patidar had faced just four balls less and hammered an unbeaten 112.

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Rahul had once addressed questions about his strike-rate, saying ‘strike-rates are overrated’. Weighing in on Rahul’s scoring rate, former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif said this is not something that has only surfaced this year. In fact, even when Rahul was captaining Punjab Kings, Latif pointed out that him batting for a long time, prevented someone as destructive as Glenn Maxwell from getting to face a substantial number of deliveries.

“Wasn’t he playing for Punjab Kings before this? He used to bat till the 15th-18th over while Glenn Maxwell hardly faced 2 balls. The team did not quality. Even Gayle was there but he played in the end. See, there is no doubt that KL Rahul is a fine player and the pitches he played on and scored hundreds, were the same where Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan struggled. Sometimes when an opener bats, he thinks it is his responsibility to bat through,” Latif said on the YouTube Show ‘Caught Behind’.

The former Pakistan captain mentioned that while Rahul is not in the same league as Rohit Sharma or Virat Kohli, he still is a special player. At the same time, Latif feels Rahul needs to work on his strike-rate as his dot ball percentage is a tad on the higher side for a player of such calibre.

“Rahul is not like Rohit Sharma. Rohit and Kohli belong to a different league, but Rahul too is a special player. Having said that he needs to improve a little. He plays a few too many dot balls for his liking. Since the runs he scores are big, the balls faced a lot too. When he was playing for Punjab, I noticed the same,” added Latif.