After India defeated Afghanistan by a huge 101-run margin on Thursday (September 08) in the Asia Cup 2022, stand-in captain KL Rahul pointed out the learnings for his team.
Rahul despite not having a good tournament, scored a fiery 62 off just 41 balls against Afghanistan.
Rahul hadn't played since the IPL 2022 before making a comeback last month for the Zimbabwe series. He discussed the difficulties he encountered after making his long-awaited return to the national squad.
"Coming back after a big injury and surgery, I have realized playing the last few games it is not as easy as you think. I was eager to come and play but obviously finding the same touch or same rhythm wasn't coming easily as I thought it would. It is a learning for me as a player, happy I could spend some time in the middle and I started feeling good. In this format when you hit the first six off the middle gives you the confidence, I think the Hong Kong game I got a free-hit and though I didn't time it as well I could, I still hit the ball out of the ground and it felt good," he said in the post-match presentation.
He revealed further that in the game against Pakistan on September 04, he started to get back into shape.
"Coming into the Pakistan game I felt little better and getting few shots away gave me the confidence, I am slowly getting into rhythm," he said.
Despite the Indian team’s victory on Thursday, they are still out of the running for the finals because of two straight defeats in the Super 4 round against Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
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Rahul further stated that the team wanted to win the tournament. He continued by saying that it would be a good time for India to review its strategy and evaluate its shortcomings.
"The result has been disappointing. Ideally, we would have wanted to play the final and challenge ourselves. We came into this tournament wanting to play the final and winning the big tournaments but it didn't go our way, we take the positives. We have been challenged and it is time to sit back and reflect. Losing is not great but sometimes you have to take it part of the journey, our vision is the World Cup and hopefully, the learnings will help us for the World Cup," he concluded.
Rohit Sharma and his men will next take on Australia in a 3-match T20I series at home starting September 20th.
(STAR SPORTS INPUTS)
