KL Rahul (Photo Source: KL Rahul/X/Twitter)
India and Bangladesh are currently locking horns in the second Test of the series at Green Park Stadium in Kanpur. With two days getting washed off, both teams had a lot to offer on the fourth day when the play eventually began. The hosts were in a commanding position as they smashed the bowlers in front mercilessly.
While Yashasvai Jaiswal’s furious 72 off 51 was the highlight of Indian’s batting line-up at the top, KL Rahul’s 68 off 43 at the backend helped India conclude their innings on 285 runs. Bangladesh cricketer Tamim Iqbal shared his thoughts on KL’s batting, stating that he is one of the players who is always under pressure and that his position gets questioned every now and then.
Speaking exclusively on JioCinema after Day 4, Tamim Iqbal, Expert, JioCinema & Sports18 shared his thoughts on the undue pressure being put on KL Rahul, “Unfortunately, in every team, there are one or two players who are always under pressure. If you go back and see their stats, they’ve done well. But, one game without scoring, and for some strange reason we put them under pressure. In the Indian team, KL Rahul is that person. He fails in one or two games, and people start talking about it and questioning his position. I think that’s not very fair.”
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Iqbal also discussed the wicket of Zakir Hasan in the 2nd innings, “The dismissal was bound to happen because if you come to bat with that survival mood against a bowler like Ashwin and Bumrah, you won’t survive. You have to come up with a positive approach. I am not saying that being positive means you have to hit sixes and fours, you can be positive defensively also. If you’re positive, you can defend better and judge better. I think Bangladesh has itself to blame. Their approach was very negative.”
He went on to discuss the role of a night watchman as Hasan Mahmud lost his wicket to Ravichandran Ashwin, “A night watchman’s job is to face as many balls as possible, save the batters, defend, and Hasan did exactly the opposite. You cannot slog. The team has sent you to defend and save the batters, who’s on the other end. You’re coming here and slogging, that sums up the day for me. The night watchman’s job is to save the batter.”