On Monday, during India's semifinal match against Australia in the 2025 Champions Trophy at the Dubai International Stadium, KL Rahul was visibly irritated and frustrated with Kohli for throwing away his wicket, which left him just 16 runs shy of his second century in the tournament.
The wicketkeeper-batter later explained the reason for the viral outburst, revealing his conversation with Kohli prior to the dismissal.
When Rahul stepped out to bat at No. 6, India needed 86 runs off 90 balls on the difficult Dubai surface. With nearly a run-a-ball needed in the chase of 264, the 32-year-old planned a simple strategy.
Speaking to Star Sports after the match, he said that he instructed Kohli to focus on strike rotation because he was the designated hitter, while he could take the aggressive way against the bowling attack.
Rahul kept to his plans. After overcoming the early pressure, he hit three boundaries in three overs following the final drinks break. However, Kohli deviated from the strategy in the 43rd over and lost his wicket, prompting Rahul's viral "Main maar raha tha na" response.
"When I walked in and when I played ten-12 balls, I told him that you're the batter that needs to go on and be there till the end, and let me try and hit or let me try and take one chance an over. Because we only needed 6 runs an over. But 6 runs an over on that wicket seemed like 8-8.5. So, you had to take one chance an over, one boundary, or one six.
So, I told him that I will do that and why don't you just rotate the strike and be there because you're the set batter and it might be harder [for me]. If you get out another batter comes, it becomes a lot harder. But yeah, he felt like it was in his range to hit and yeah, he didn't time it well,” KL Rahul told Star Sports.
After collecting the Player of the Match award for his 84-run knock, Kohli admitted that he did not follow his usual template.
"The time that I got out, the plan was to get 20 more and try and finish it off in a couple of overs. Usually that's the template I follow but sometimes you can't execute things how you want to. It's all dependant on the conditions, the pitch tells me how the cricket needs to be played and then I just switch on and play accordingly," he said.
India will now face the winner of the second semi-final between South Africa and New Zealand that is scheduled in Lahore on March 5, 2025. The final will be played in Dubai on March 9.
