India wicketkeeper-batter KL Rahul has conceded that the external criticism did have an impact on him during his challenging phase even though he tried his best to ignore it.
Rahul was facing the flak for his batting approach in the last couple of seasons. He also lost his form and was dropped from the team during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy earlier this year.
After sustaining a thigh injury during the IPL 2023 season, Rahul underwent surgery and made a blockbuster comeback to the Indian team last month. He performed exceedingly well in the Asia Cup 2023 and is batting well in the ongoing World Cup at home.
Addressing the media on the eve of India’s World Cup match against England, Rahul opened up on the strategies he employed to block the outside noise.
"I tried to address outside noise for a long time, I thought it won't affect me, but in the last year or so it started affecting me. And then I realised that I will have to work on it. And when I got time, outside of the game, I tried to work on that side - mentally you got to get a lot stronger, a lot more thick-skinned. So yeah, so that really helped me being away from the game," Rahul told reporters.
Even though India’s performance in the World Cup has been clinical so far, the team is sweating over the fitness of its key player Hardik Pandya.
The all-rounder sustained an ankle injury during India’s match against Bangladesh in Pune on October 19. Subsequently, he missed out on the last fixture against New Zealand in Dharamsala on October 22.
Hardik is all set to miss the game against England in Lucknow on Sunday (October 29) as well since he is still recovering from the injury at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore.
In Hardik’s absence, Rahul confirmed that Suryakumar Yadav will continue to bat for India at No. 6.
"Hardik has also been a very important member of the team and he has been there and he does a very important role for the team.
"So not having him is also a bit of a miss for the team. But it's unfortunate what happened. And yeah, we also at some point have to look at that and the present is that he is not available for this game.
"Surya will probably get his chance and we know what Surya can do. So, our confidence is in Surya till Hardik comes back."
India have won all five matches in the World Cup by chasing down targets. In the remaining four league games, the hosts won't mind batting first if the situation arises and management has also spoken about that possibility.
"We have not really gone too much into it. So whatever opportunities we've gotten we've done well but again it will be a good opportunity in the next four games if we can get to bat first. It'll be a good challenge for us to just see how to pace the innings and it's been some time since we've batted first," Rahul said.
(With PTI inputs)
