New Delhi, April 11 Former India batter Wasim Jaffer has said that he was surprised with KL Rahul's timid approach in Lucknow Super Giant's big run chase against Royal Challengers (RCB) Bangalore in an IPL 2023 game and described the right-hander's knock as painful.
The former cricketer also urged the LSG skipper to take the risk of playing attacking cricket as Lucknow have a strong enough batting line-up.
Lucknow registered a thrilling one-wicket win over RCB on Monday night. While Nicholas Pooran (62 off 19) and Marcus Stoinis (65 off 30) played exceptionally well in chasing the 213-run target, Rahul's performance was disappointing as he was dismissed for 18 off 20 balls.
"I am surprised. It was a bit painful as well. When you are chasing 213 and you are the captain, you need to lead from the front," Jaffer told ESPNcricinfo.
"Rahul will have to change his intent. LSG have a very good batting line-up. In the current team, Krunal Pandya hasn't fired yet, same with Deepak Hooda. Also, there is a lot of depth in the batting. He will need to show some intent because the team has really good back-ups. It's not like LSG would not be able to score runs if Rahul gets out," he added.
Jaffer further stated that the captain's inactivity in batting is creating an extra burden on the rest of the batters.
"We have seen Rahul play blazing knocks, but sometimes in franchise cricket, he takes up a little too much time. That puts pressure on the non-striker and the players in the dugout as well. The other batters thus have to take unnecessary risks. Rahul can play attacking cricket. It's just that he needs to bat with a more positive intent," he said.
However, after the match, the LSG skipper defended his timid approach saying that the early wickets forced him to bat cautiously and play according to the situation.
"Not ideal for me, I want to score more runs and get the strike rate up as well. We've played on two tough Lucknow wickets, and today we lost 3 wickets so I went slower. I wanted to stay till the end and play with Nicky," Rahul said in the post-match presentation.
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