Ahead of the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021, Punjab Kings' batting coach Wasim Jaffer has announced that the fans will see an “aggressive” KL Rahul in the upcoming T20 league.
The right-hander, who is a three-dimensional player for Punjab Kings being a captain, the opener, and the wicketkeeper for his franchise, finished as the top scorer with 670 runs in 14 matches in the IPL 2020, but it was his low strike rate for which he was criticized.
In the last season, the PBKS captain batted at the strike rate of 129.35. However, he had to take a conservative approach despite being an aggressive opener and many believed his lack of intent in the powerplay may have cost the franchise a playoff spot last year.
However, Rahul had defended his approach by saying “strike rates are very, very overrated” and now the batting coach has explained why the Punjab Kings captain took a “timid” approach in the IPL 2020, saying the lack of a reliable middle-order forced the India star to play the anchor's role at times and hold one end of the pitch as other batsmen around him look to accelerate the run-rate.
In an interaction with Times of India, Jaffer said: “KL batted a little timidly last season. He probably batted deeper because there was not much batting after No. 5, and Glenn Maxwell was not firing. He took that responsibility on himself to try and stay at the crease and get the job done. This time around, everyone will see an aggressive KL Rahul for sure.”
Recently, the wicketkeeper-batsman had a horrible T20I series, but made a brilliant comeback in the ODI series against England and Jaffer said: “It can happen to any player. The more games he played, the better he became. Yes, he had a poor T20 series, but it did not make him a bad batsman.”
The batting coach further noted, “He has scored centuries in all three formats and knows his game better than anyone else. In the ODIs, he showed why he is such a special player.”
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On the PBKS squad for the upcoming IPL 14, Jaffer said: “This is a much more balanced side than last year. We lacked bowlers who can back Mohammed Shami. In Jhye Richardson and Riley Meredith, we have got two pacers who can bowl quick.”
On the logic behind spending millions on the two overseas pacers Richardson and Meredith who won't be playing all the matches in the IPL 2021, he said: “I am not the right guy to answer this. But we do have a talented pool of Indian pacers in the form of Arshdeep Singh, Ishan Porel, and Darshan Nalkande.”
The Punjab Kings have had a strong top-order, but they didn’t have a big hitter at No. 5, 6, or 7 and that’s probably one of the reasons why they struggled to close out matches in the tournament, but this season they have Shahrukh Khan in the squad to do the job for the side.
Jaffer signed off by saying, “Shahrukh Khan is someone we are looking at as a finisher this time around.”
