Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) captain KL Rahul who has two years of captaincy experience with Punjab Kings (PBKS), believes that there is “no winning formula”. Ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 mega auction, Rahul remained tight-lipped about his wish list of players to rope in for the upcoming season. In an exclusive interview with Sports Tak, Rahul accepted that he had made mistakes while leading PBKS and aims to not repeat them in his debut season with the Lucknow franchise.
“Obviously it is a big opportunity. I was the captain of Punjab. I captained them put two years. Yes, I made some mistakes there but I’ve learned from those mistakes and I learnt a lot from it. As as player you have a specific thinking and a specific process but when you become a captain, you have to put those things behind and do what is right for the team. I had limited resources and I tried to do most from it. I am a firm believer that all 11 players have to contribute to win. So I see it as an opportunity where I can back ten players and make them enjoy each other’s success. I learnt a few things while leading Punjab and hopefully I can use those things here in Lucknow,” Rahul recalled his transition from player to captain of the Punjab franchise.
Rahul recently led India in the ODI series against South Africa in the absence of Rohit Sharma. India got whitewashed in the ODI series but Rahul believes that the team has taken learnings from the embarrassing loss. He also vowed to come back strongly in the upcoming series at home against West Indies.
"There is no shying away from it. We started the series in the best possible way and then we couldn’t continue with it we made a lot of mistakes. It’s not that we won’t make mistakes in the future but looking back we’ve been the most consistent team in the last three four years. We’ve done well in every country . we won one-day series we won tests and we also won T20 series. These things happen in sport nothing is guaranteed I think South Africa played exceptionally well. South Africa won important moments in the game. That’s why they ended up winning the ODI's as well as Test series. It is a learning curve for us especially considering we haven’t lost much in the last couple of years. It was very good wake up call for all of us. We will come back strongly in the West Indies series," the 29-year-old explained.
While there are question marks over whether Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will host the IPL 2022 in India or in UAE or South Africa amidst rising Covid-19 cases in the country, Rahul does not want to pick players in the auction concerned about the playing conditions.
"We need to make sure we pick players who play in Mumbai or Dubai or in South Africa irrespective of the conditions and adapt well. We want to pick players who have the skill to adapt in different conditions quickly. I don’t think you can have a winning formula for any team I think it’s important to build a very good atmosphere for the players. You need to have an environment where each and every player looks forward to express himself. IPL is a long tournament it is important for the players to be in the right frame of mind to perform consistently there,” the third-highest run-scorer of IPL 2021 said.
