Team India opener and Lucknow Super Giants skipper KL Rahul has become indispensable in the national side across all three formats following consistent performances with the bat in the last two years especially, however, it wasn’t the same before that.
KL Rahul opened up about his sudden exclusion from the side after the 2019 Cricket World Cup when he wasn’t part of the side for the series against West Indies, that too when he did exceptionally well in the tournament.
Rahul, who played at No. 4 in the side’s first two games in the World Cup was promoted to his favourite position – opener – when Shikhar Dhawan was ruled out of the competition after suffering a fracture in his wrist. While injury list kept increasing for the Men in Blue, Rahul took to the change in position like fish to water as in 9 games he went on to amass 361 runs which included a century and two fifties.
However, Rahul wasn’t picked in the side for the West Indies tour right after the World Cup. Speaking about the same to Gaurav Kapur on Breakfast with Champions, Rahul said that soon after the snub, he remembered messaging his close friend Gayle, whom he has played with at Punjab Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore.
“I remember in 2019, I think we played the World Cup and right after it, we went to the West Indies for a series. I played the World Cup, I did decently well and then we went into the series and I got dropped. I was messaging him, he said ‘Come by the pool. I’m having a drink’. It was his 300th game the next day so he was very happy and he had some friends over. So I went. I was by the pool. He came, sat with me, spoke to me that why are you not playing,” Rahul said.
Recalling Gayle’s sound advice, Rahul said that the ‘Universe Boss’ told him to not bother about reasons of why he got dropped but on solutions and how he can comeback and score heap of runs that no one can drop him
“You know, I obviously was frustrated because I played the World Cup and I’m not playing this. Makes no sense. So, I was just talking to him and he’s like ‘See you can always say that you’re not playing because of 100 other reasons but it’s in your hands whether you play or not. If 70 is not enough, get 150. If you are getting 150, get 200 if that’s not enough. That’s how you need to look at things. If a 600-run IPL season is not enough, then get 800. Or like you’re getting 50s, 60s in the World Cup, you should have converted that and gotten 100-120s. Then no one has the power to drop you’,” Rahul further added.
