Mumbai, May 16 He may have been ignored for the ICC T20 World Cup and publicly scolded by the owner of his franchise but Lucknow Super Giants assistant coach Lance Klusener believes KL Rahul has had an outstanding IPL 2024 season as captain but was left frustrated by lack of support from other batters.
Super Giants were doing well till the IPL 2024 reached the home stretch and were in contention for the playoffs before they lost four of their last five matches which hampered their progress.
In the middle of this disastrous run came the public outburst by the franchise owner Sajiv Goenka inside the ground after their embarrassing 10-wicket capitulation against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International stadium.
Klusener, while refusing to comment on the Goekna-Rahul incident, said KL has done well as a batter but did not get enough support from others.
"I think he's probably a little bit frustrated about his performances over the tournament. I think he's had to rebuild a lot of the times we've lost wickets around him. We haven't allowed him to play his natural game. So it's easy to just sit and think, 'oh, well, he hasn't had a great tournament'. But if you look at his numbers, they're actually not bad at all, considering the circumstances that he's had to bat. He's a great cricketer and got the respect of the group,” Klusener said in the pre-match press conference before his team's clash with Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium on Friday.
That match will probably end LSG's campaign in IPL 2024 unless a miracle happens and they somehow make it to the playoffs.
Klusener praised Rahul for his captaincy and for the way he handled things in the middle.
"So in terms of his captaincy, I think it's been outstanding. His respect amongst the group is outstanding. As I said, I think if he looks back, he might just be a little frustrated with the amount of runs, I guess, that he scored.
"But if you look at the circumstances, he's had to rebuild a lot of the time while he's been batting. So, I think, the batting group around him haven't done him too many favours either," Klusener added.
In 13 matches so far, Rahul has scored 465 runs at an average of 35.7 and a strike rate of 136.36. He scored three fifties and had a highest score of 82.
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