IPL 2023: 'KL Rahul was a massive miss' — Tom Moody after LSG's elimination from the competition

Former SRH coach Tom Moody believes KL Rahul was a massive miss for LSG during the IPL Eliminator clash against MI in Chennai

SportsTak

• Thu • 25 May 2023

Former SRH coach Tom Moody believes that KL Rahul was a massive miss for the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) during their Eliminator clash loss against the Mumbai Indians (MI) in Chennai on Wednesday, May 24.

The side made it to the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 Playoffs for a second consecutive time but once again fell short in the Eliminators. Chasing 182 for the win, they got off to an inauspicious start, losing the wickets of Prerak Mankad and Kyle Mayers early.

The in-form Marcus Stoinis then steadied their innings but the wicket of Krunal Pandyabegan what was a major batting collapse as Akash Madhwal bagged figures of 5/5 in 3.3 overs to bundled the Lucknow-based franchise for 101 to take MI through to the 2nd Qualifier.

LSG have been without their skipper KL Rahul since May 1 after he suffered an injury during the match against RCB. After being sidelined for the rest of the tournament, Australia Moody is of the opinion that the SRH batter was a big miss for them in the Eliminator stage of the tournament.

Speaking to Cricinfo, the former SRH coach said that with Rahul's presence in the rest of the games, LSG would have scored atleast three fifties for his team.

"I think KL Rahul was a massive miss for LSG. This is the second time they have reached the playoffs, so that in itself is a great achievement for a new team. I think even though at the point that KL Rahul injured himself, you can just about guarantee that he would have scored three if not more half-centuries in the rest of the games and that was missing."

Rahul in the LSG batting lineup would have given the side a completely different look. With his absence, stability was missing in the team and hence, their total number of runs diminished.

"KL Rahul in that batting lineup is a different story, it is a completely different look," he added. "I felt that he was a big loss, just around the stability that he provides as a top-order player. Yes, there are times that he is criticized for not striking at the rate that we all feel that he should, but there are other times that he does. It's the volume of runs that was missing," he added.