KL Rahul will lead the Indian team in the three ODIs in Zimbabwe. He was not named in the initial squad, wherein Shikhar Dhawan was named the skipper, to tour Zimababwe, but after recovering completely from covid-19 and gaining full fitness following the hernia surgery, Rahul was added to the squad and was appointed the vice-captain – with Dhawan as his deputy – to lead the second-string squad.
KL Rahul, who is returning to the national side for the first time after the IPL 2022 having struggled with injury and covid, attended the pre-match press conference in Harare on Wednesday. There he was asked whether he will follow the captaincy styles of the likes of MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma.
Rahul had a striaght reply to this, explaining that he will only be himself and not look to imitate anyone else.
“I can’t go out there and be someone else. Then I won’t be fair to myself, to the team, or to the game. I try and be myself and let the other players be themselves as they want. I can’t even compare myself with these guys (MSD), their numbers and achievement are far greater in terms of what they have done for the country, and I don’t think any name could be taken in the same breath,” Rahul answered.
Rahul’s captaincy career in the IPL has been unimpressive so far
Rahul’s captaincy career hasn’t, however, been successful. Rahul is the designated vice-captain of the Indian team and has led the side earlier on the tour of South Africa in the Johannesburg Test match and the 3-ODI series that followed. However, India lost all those four matches.
In the IPL, he led Punjab Kings for two seasons in which they failed to qualify for the playoffs; this year, he captained Lucknow who lost the eliminator to RCB. Nonetheless, Rahul is the likeliest candidate to take over the captaincy duties after Rohit Sharma.
What has KL Rahul learned from Rohit Sharma?
“This is my second series as captain, and obviously, I have played under him [Rohit] and learnt a lot from him as player. As you have been playing for so many years, you will pick some good qualities from these guys,” Rahul added.
The first ODI between India and Zimbabwe will be played on Thursday, August 18. The next two on August 20 and 22, after which KL Rahul and a few others from this squad will fly to the UAE for the Asia Cup 2022.
