Rajkot, Jan 18 (SocialNews.XYZ) K.L. Rahul, who played a match-winning knock in the second ODI against Australia, has revealed that in order to bat in the middle-order, he watched a lot of videos of Steve Smith, AB de Villiers and Kane Williamson.
In the ongoing ODI series, Rahul batted at number three in the first ODI -- which India lost by 10 wickets -- before being asked to play the role of a finisher in Rajkot where the hosts emerged victorious.
And Rahul showed how versatile a batsman he was, finishing with a breezy 52-ball 80 to pilot his side to a match-winning -- and series-levelling -- total.
"I just spoke a lot more to middle-order batsmen. I watched a lot of videos, I spoke a lot to Virat (Kohli), watched a lot of videos of AB or Steve Smith for the matter on how they build their innings," Rahul said at the post-match press conference on Friday after India defeated Australia by 36 runs.
"Kane Williamson, who I have tried to go back and watch some of his videos to see how they build their innings, and how they play in certain situations.
"Only thing I have tried is how to be better in certain situations. And reading of the game has got a lot better now that I have played in different positions," he added.
The Karnataka batsman has scores of 102, 77, 45, 54, 47 and 80 in his last 6 international matches (T20Is and ODIs) while batting at different positions.
"Look I have always opened the batting. That is the position, order I am most comfortable with, and I know how to build my innings. But I get to learn so much about my skills about my batting... batting as an art when I get the chance to bat at 3 or 4 or 5," he said.
"I'm kind of enjoying it (batting at different positions), I'm finding new ways to counter bowlers, new ways to handle situations. I don't look at it as pressure, something like an opportunity and I will try to play it the best I can," he added.
In the Rajkot ODI, Rahul also had a good stint behind the stumps, taking two catches and effecting the dismissal of Australian captain Aaron Finch with a sharp stumping.
The series decider will be played at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Sunday.
Source: IANS
Gopi Adusumilli is a Programmer. He is the editor of SocialNews.XYZ and President of AGK Fire Inc.
He enjoys designing websites, developing mobile applications and publishing news articles on current events from various authenticated news sources.
When it comes to writing he likes to write about current world politics and Indian Movies. His future plans include developing SocialNews.XYZ into a News website that has no bias or judgment towards any.
He can be reached at gopi@socialnews.xyz
This website uses cookies.
