At Lucknow’s Ekana Stadium, KL Rahul suffered an injury six months ago that necessitated surgery and sidelined him for a considerable amount of international cricket. Now that he was back as a regular member of the Indian team, Rahul could afford to laugh it off, albeit a little too sardonically.
Rahul made a joke at the pre-match news conference on the eve of India’s match against England, saying, “I am trying to forget; you are reminding me again and again.”
“I can’t claim that it has left my thoughts. All I could remember from when I initially woke up here yesterday was falling and getting hurt. So that I may forget everything, I want to get past that and have some better, happier memories,” he uttered.
Rahul acknowledged that his larger strategy to get through a challenging year included thinking such pessimistic ideas. He was honest enough to admit that mental training had been a large part of his recent preparations.
“I’ve worked so hard on this. I attempted to handle it. For a long time, I didn’t think outside noise would affect me, but in the last year or so, it has. I realised then that I would need to put in some effort. You had to build mental toughness and resilience, so I tried to focus on that side of things whenever I had free time. That made it much easier for me to stay away from the game,” Rahul remarked.
It follows captain Rohit Sharma’s admission that he avoided social media by using a different tactic. Rahul echoed the concepts. “Same,” he said again, “and then there are experts, like bowling, batting, and hitting specialists, as well as specialised mental coaches that you can really use and work on if you think it will help.” I therefore tried it with everything.”
Rahul revealed that the team culture played a big part in their tremendous World Cup success.
“I believe that the fielding medal videos are just one thing that you are seeing or that the spectators outside are seeing; they are getting to see a version of cricketers that they may not have seen before, but one thing is that since I have returned to the team from the Asia Cup, the atmosphere has been such that everyone is enjoying cricket,” said the player. Everyone is now generally content. We are aware that pressure will always exist when we pass a boundary. Still, the wisest move is to withdraw from the field. We are still capable of maintaining our composure and having fun.”
He says that what has given India’s campaign a little more taste is the smart squad composition and tactics.
The players, in my opinion, have had plenty of opportunity and time to develop into their respective roles since I re-joined the club following the Asia Cup. “It’s just that we’ve been acting so aggressively,” Our preparations have been excellent, thorough, and precise, at the very least. Thus, yes, I do believe that’s partially a readiness issue. We’re quite well-prepared. Thus, that makes the source of the confidence clear.”
In my opinion, Rahul’s efforts with the bat weren’t as significant as they could have been, especially in light of his outstanding performance in the victory over Australia. He has, meanwhile, garnered attention for his skills behind the stumps, which he asserted was the most crucial component of his injury recuperation.
“During the process of getting fitter, I did focus a lot on wicket keeping in addition to my hitting. Because of my condition, the NCA medical team thought that maintaining wickets would be more difficult than batting. The two areas I’ve worked on the most are my fitness and wicket keeping. That was the order of things—batting came next. As a result, I worked really hard to get better at keeping wicket overseas, and I haven’t stopped since coming back. That seems like it would require more effort and time from me.
Yes, studying it is comparable to studying anything else. I take wicket-keeping seriously since proper technique and glove function are crucial in Indian conditions. In order to play wicket-keeping as well as I can, I’m attempting to check all of those boxes. You have a better chance of succeeding if you work harder and put in more effort,” he stated.
Rahul believes that for India to win, they must demonstrate their might when they bat first. They emerged victorious from their first five games after chasing, and Rahul was excited to see what would come next.
“So whatever opportunities we’ve gotten we’ve done well but again it will be a good opportunity if we get to bat first before the next stage and 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, so it will be useful for the team.”
