India batter KL Rahul came in for some heavy criticism for his poor batting in the recent T20 World Cup 2022 as he failed to give India flying starts as an opener and played a role in Rohit Sharma and co.’s exit from the tournament after a 10-wicket loss to England in the semi-final.
KL Rahul scored half-centuries against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, but besides that, his scores were 4,9, and 9 in league-stage matches, while he managed only 5 runs against England in the semi-final.
He looked uncomfortable in the powerplays and didn’t score quickly as India posted a total of 40 runs or more in powerplays just once in the entire tournament.
Former India player Irfan Pathan spoke about the same and said that KL Rahul's half-centuries do not mean much since they came against smaller teams.
"He started badly. After that, when he scored two half-centuries, they definitely came against teams where you expect runs, I felt another half-century was about to come, the form is about to come. But this has been a problem with KL Rahul for a long time," Irfan Pathan said on Star Sports.
Pathan said that Rahul does not have the confidence to back himself, something that translates into poor performance. Rahul came back into the Indian team against Zimbabwe in ODIs after a lengthy injury layoff and struggled to get the consistency back in his game.
Also, Pathan pointed out that questions about his strike rate remained as before.
"When you watch him bat, you feel he is technically fantastic, but I feel when it comes to being tough on the mental front, he doesn't back himself there. We have spoken about his strike rate earlier.
When he comes back from injury, his initial movement is probably late. Here also both his feet were in the air. If he wanted, he could have given himself room and played the cut shot. He has all the ability against both pace and spin but if you are slightly soft at the top, it makes a huge impact on your cricket," he concluded.
