Senior India cricketer KL Rahul has confirmed that he will slot back in the India’s playing XI for today’s match against Pakistan in Colombo.
KL Rahul will be making his comeback to professional cricket after over four months as he was out of action due to a thigh injury that he sustained on May 1 during an IPL 2023 game, and for which he required a surgery in London.
Although he recovered from the thigh injury last month, he sustained a “minor niggle” which saw him miss India’s first two matches in the Asia Cup 2023 in Group A, against Pakistan and Nepal.
India will face Pakistan on September 10 in Colombo in their Super 4 encounter.
On the eve of the game against Pakistan, KL Rahul said that he’s ready for his comeback and will play against Pakistan on Sunday.
“I am fully fit, ready to go and very happy to be back with the team,” KL Rahul said in Colombo.
However, the problem for the management now is who would KL Rahul replace in the XI. KL Rahul was India’s incumbent wicket-keeper who would bat at number 5 after Rishabh Pant was ruled out.
Rahul has solid numbers at the number 5 position: he averages 53 in 18 innings at this position with 7 fifties and 1 century.
Ishan Kishan has made a strong case with four consecutive fifties in ODIs, including a terrific knock of 82 after early wickets fell.
Rahul reportedly didn’t do any wicket-keeping drills in training in the past two days. So the axe might fall on Shreyas Iyer. At number 4 Shreyas Iyer only made his return and has played just one knock.
Recovery time went by really, really quickly: KL Rahul
KL Rahul also explained his recovery process, and why his latest injury was different from the previous injuries.
“Quite strange this time, the other other times that I’ve had surgery or injuries, you know, I find myself really being very bored, not knowing what to do or not having any motivation to you know, wake up and go and do physio. It’s really boring. It’s really frustrating and you get really lazy after the point in time. But this time I that didn’t happen. I don’t know what it was, but I always found the motivation to go and do the boring stuff this time, this period of being away from the game to just, you know, not really be desperate about anything,” Rahul said.
“I just wanted to enjoy the process of even doing physio something as boring as physio, which is not as rewarding as playing a game of cricket. But, you know, I try to enjoy each part of each day as it comes, and I think that made it really easy and in a way I feel like I’ve been away for four months, but it didn’t feel like it was a long time. It went by really, really quickly,” he added.
