"Slightly Soft At The Top": Ex-India Star Questions KL Rahul's Mentality After Dismal Show Against England

India batter KL Rahul's poor form with the bat continued against England in the semi-final clash of the ongoing T20 World Cup on Thursday. After getting some poor scores of 4, 9, and 9 in the first three matches, Rahul went on to register two half-centuries against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. But, the opening batter failed during the must-win semi-final clash against England and was dismissed for 5 runs. Rahul has been facing severe backlash on social media from fans and even a number of former cricketers for his dismal show.

Former India batter Irfan Pathan also expressed his views on Rahul and stated that he was hopeful about the India vice-captain playing a big innings against England, but eventually, it could not happen.

"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. 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," Irfan Pathan said on Star Sports after the match.

"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 added. 

Coming to the semi-final clash, England openers Jos Buttler (80*) and Alex Hales (86*) made a mockery of the 169-run target as they took their side across the line in just 16 overs and ten wickets in hand. 

Put to bat first, the Rohit Sharma-led side lost three wickets in 12 overs, with only 75 runs on the board. Later, Hardik Pandya, along with Virat Kohli, took the charge and completely changed the momentum of the game. Pandya smashed 63 runs off 33 balls and Kohli scored 50 off 40 balls, to take the team's score to 168/6 in 20 overs. 

Later, No Indian bowler managed to bag a single wicket as the duo of Buttler and Hales chased down the target of 169 runs in just 16 overs. For England, Chris Jordan became the star bowler as he scalped three wickets while Chris Woakes and Adil Rashid took one wicket each.

England will now be facing Pakistan in the final clash of the T20 World Cup 2022 on Sunday at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Topics mentioned in this article

India Cricket Team England Cricket Team KL Rahul Irfan Pathan ICC T20 World Cup 2022 Cricket