Rahul Dravid, who also kept wickets for some time during his playing days, lauded Rahul’s efforts behind the stumps despite not being a regular keeper.
Team India head coach Rahul Dravid heaped big praise on KL Rahul for doing a fantastic job as both wicketkeeper and batter in the ongoing ODI World Cup 2023. After returning from a long injury lay-off, Rahul has been in sensational form and once again became an integral part of India’s 50-over set-up. The 31-year-old has also done well in the role of wicketkeeper and grabbed some stunning catches behind the stumps.
Dravid, who also kept wickets for some time during his playing days, lauded Rahul’s efforts behind the stumps despite not being a regular keeper.
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“It’s certainly not easy and I think he is doing a fantastic job of it. I thought Rahul’s really kept superbly in this tournament and then batted really well whenever he’s got the opportunity to do that, especially in the first game. But yeah, I think it is challenging, because for someone like him who, and having had that experience myself, he’s not someone who keeps regularly at all,” Dravid said in the pre-match press conference.
“He’s probably kept a little bit more than I have. As a youngster, he kept probably up to his under-19 days, and he’s kept in a few T20 games, as well for Karnataka and all that,” Dravid added.
The head coach said that it was not easy for Rahul to make a comeback after long lay-off and then returned to keep the wickets in the 50-over format without getting much game time prior to the World Cup.
“So, he kept a little bit more than I did, but certainly not easy, considering he was also out with injury for four or five months. When we first decided that he would keep and we wanted to have that kind of option with him as one of the options of being able to keep in and bat in the middle order and we thought we would build him up to this tournament by giving him game time and building him up. But unfortunately, due to his injury, he actually couldn’t keep for a while,” he added.
Dravid further pointed out the hard work Rahul put in during the rehabilitation after injury.
“The way he’s come back, the way he’s worked hard, even in his injury, he worked really hard. When he started getting back to skills, spent a lot of time with the wicket-keeping, worked really hard on it. So yeah, I thought he’s kept really well in this thing. And it’s been really good to see. It just certainly gives us a lot of confidence in him and his ability,” he added.
