Manjrekar stressed on the importance of Rahul maximising his batting potential for his team to recover.
Manjrekar pointed out how Rahul is "holding back a gear" and trying to bat deep into the innings at a cost of his strike-rate in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020.
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Since scoring a magnificent hundred (69-ball 132*) in the victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), Rahul has adopted a sedate approach where although he continues to score runs, he puts them on board at a significantly slower rate.
Manjrekar, writing his column for the Times of India, wondered whether in going down that route, Rahul is underutilising his own self as a batsman and how that also is an issue holding back his team, which currently stands eighth in the points table with five defeats in six outings.
"For Punjab to go up in the points table, KL Rahul must not worry about others," stressed Manjrekar. "One of the many points of interest for me in this tournament was KL Rahul, the captain, and the possible effects of captaincy on his batting."
"First thing first, Rahul is just a sensational player, who plays the modern 360-degrees game like few others; and he is the only one who makes it look classical. Nothing goes out of sync or harmony when he plays those ‘out of the book’ shots. They look as beautiful and as classy as his cover drive."
"Rahul’s breakthrough year in the tournament (IPL) was 2018, when we saw this incredible T20 batsman emerge. He matched the T20 legends, especially when it came to strike rate. He scored an amazing 659 runs that season at a mind-boggling strike rate of 158 (158.41).
"The next season, though, I saw a change. He was not batting with as much freedom. He seemed to be just holding back a gear. It was a clear case of a batsman who could score more quickly, but wasn’t prepared to," he added.
There have been suggestions from the outside that Rahul is weighed down by captaincy, but Manjrekar refused to believe so, stating numbers to back his case.
"When I looked at his numbers that season (2019), the strike rate had dropped significantly, in the 130s (135.38). This year too his strike rate is again in the same region of 130," he wrote.
"I don’t think it’s as much the captaincy responsibility that’s weighing him down as much as Rahul himself putting a greater prize on his wicket post-2018," Manjrekar signed off.