Team India's opening batter and vice-captain, KL Rahul has looked like a pale shadow of himself in the ongoing T20 World Cup in Australia. The stylish right-handed batter, who played an imperious knock against a quality Australian attack in the practice match, has failed to translate the same performance at the time when it matters the most. In three innings so far, Rahul has looked jittery at the crease and his confidence seems to have taken a hit as runs are hard to come by at the moment for a batter who has smashed two centuries for India in the shortest format of the game.
Head coach Rahul Dravid remains unbothered by the lack of runs from Rahul's bat and has exuded confidence in the right-handed batter's potential.
"I think he is a fantastic player, he has a proven track record. I think he has been batting superbly. These things can happen in T20Is, it has not been that easy for top-order batters. This tournament has been challenging, I think he was brilliant in the practice games against the likes of Pat Cummins, and Mitchell Starc. He got 60 or 70. I am hoping that it all clicks together in the next few games," Dravid said in the press conference on November 01 before India's game against Bangladesh on November 02.
"We know his quality and ability, he is very well suited for these conditions. He has got a good all-round game and he has a very good backfoot game which is required in these conditions. We are happy with the way he has been hitting it," he added.
In three innings so far, Rahul has failed to crack the double-digit score even once. He has aggregated just 22 runs at an average of 7.33 and a strike rate of 64.7.
Talking about the conversations with KL Rahul, Dravid affirmed that the communication has been great and also cited how captain Rohit Sharma has backed all the players.
"We have a lot of conversations with players, it is hard to reveal exact details. Rest assured, both in words and in action, over the last year, he knows he has our support. There has been a lot of clarity on what our side is going to be in this tournament and we have not wavered from that. We play a lot of cricket, you might see different players playing in different situations," Dravid continued.
"There have been injuries and including him, he has had phases where he has been injured. I think it has been great with captain Rohit Sharma that he has shown faith and belief in players," he added.
