Indian men’s cricket team’s fielding coach T Dilip was full of praise for KL Rahul’s wicketkeeping in the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup 203, after the Men in Blue finished the league stage unbeaten.
On Sunday, India defeated Netherlands in Bengaluru by 160 runs in their final league game of the tournament. Rahul shone with the bat, and also with his glovework.
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Rahul displayed some brilliant wicket-keeping skills. He took a low catch dismissing Netherlands opener Wesley Berresi. Rahul also took a sharp catch down the leg side to make sure Virat Kohli had his first World Cup wicket after the former captain rolled his arm over for 3 overs in Bengaluru.
For the record, in 9 matches, Rahul has taken 12 catches and effected a stumping in a nearly spotless show with the gloves.
“He has been doing a truly amazing job as a wicketkeeper,” T Dilip said after India ended the league stage with a perfect record of 9 wins.
“Of course, when he came he came from a long injury layoff. That was something that we considered as a challenging factor. He has come up really well. He is someone who has been keeping wickets from a young age, but we identified a couple of factors and worked upon it and every wicketkeeper is different. He is someone who will need a couple of sessions to adapt to the challenges. If we speak to him and if he believes he is that kind of a wicketkeeper.
“I am quite happy with the way he has been moving laterally and also for his height, the way he is taking low catches is outstanding,” Dilip added.
With the bat, Rahul took 62 balls to smash the fastest century for India in a World Cup to better skipper Rohit Sharma’s record (63 balls vs Afghanistan).
“Not gotten a lot of time (in the middle) in the last two games, so it was nice to get some time today,” Rahul, who ended up with 102 off 64 balls, said in the mid-innings break.
“Batting at No 5, it’s important to get that confidence, it was a good knock. Getting that confidence to hit sixes towards the end was important,” he said.
It was a timely knock for Rahul, his first fifty-plus score in eight innings coming just before the knock-out stage.
(With inputs from Agencies)
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