Aakash Chopra Made A Big Statement About KXIP’s ‘Captain’ KL Rahul: IPL 2020 was no less than a roller-coaster ride for the Kings XI Punjab. After remaining at the bottom of the table in the first half of the tournament, the team bounced back and won back-to-back 6 games, however, they failed to qualify for the playoffs. The team clearly struggled in identifying their best XI throughout the tournament.
Recently, former Indian cricketer and popular commentator Aakash Chopra opined that the skipper of KXIP should take some blame for the debacle of KXIP in IPL 2020.
In his latest video on YouTube, Aakash Chopra started by pointing out that KL Rahul had a mixed season as a skipper. Though he was full of praises for KL Rahul’s captaincy but he pointed out the fact that KL struggled a lot to identify his best XI. He said:
“I was 50-50 with KL Rahul’s captaincy. Because he will have to take some of the blame for Kings XI Punjab not being able to find their ideal XI. I am sure these are the decisions of the team management and all of that but you also play a part. So that is an issue because it took some time to understand.”
He further claimed that KL Rahul managed the KXIP bowlers quite well. The popular commentator also stated that KL Rahul improved a lot as a skipper throughout the just concluded edition of the Indian Premier League, as he extracted the best from his players including the likes of Mohammed Shami, Murugan Ashwin, and Ravi Bishnoi. He said:
“If you talk about the captaincy in terms of bowler management as that is a very important aspect, I was fine. He handled the bowlers well, didn’t play them consistently at the start.” But when he started playing them, he used Ravi Bishnoi well, Murugan was used well also and even Shami was used well. In fact, let me just say this that KL Rahul’s captaincy kept improving as the tournament progressed.”
Chopra concluded by giving a rating of 7.5 out of 10 to KL Rahul as a captain. He said:
“And that is not surprising because he had not captained in the IPL earlier, this was his first year, so you are a little cautious and conservative in the beginning but after that you find your feet and that’s what he did towards the end. So he kept on improving as the team played more matches.”
He concluded:
“So, well done KL Rahul. I would give 7.5 out of 10 for KL Rahul the captain, not too bad, not too great, improvement can be there and it will happen also is what I feel”
Meanwhile, KL has been selected in all the formats of the game for the upcoming tour to Australia, which includes three ODIs, three T20Is and four Tests.
