Columbo: India batter KL Rahul, who displayed exceptional prowess by scoring his 6th ODI ton to mark his remarkable return to international cricket, spoke on the exhilarating partnership with Virat Kohli, who also reached a century milestone during their unbeaten stand in India’s massive 228-run win over Pakistan in Asia Cup Super Four match.
In a conversation with Star Sports, Rahul expressed that words fall short in describing Kohli’s greatness as a player adding that he feels comfortable playing with him in the middle.
During his outstanding knock of 122 not out off just 94 balls, Kohli completed 13,000 ODI runs, becoming the fifth player to reach the landmark in men’s ODIs. In the process, he the quickest to the milestone and breaking the legendary batter Sachin Tendulkar’s record.
Kohli got to the milestone in 267 innings, while Sachin took 321 innings to reach the milestone.
“He has hit 13,000 runs. I can’t say anything about that man; he is just phenomenal. Words are short to describe what a great cricketer he is, and I’ve always felt comfortable playing with him in the middle. We run really hard. It’s not that he runs hard only for himself; he runs his partner’s runs as well really hard, and there’s good communication between us,” said Rahul.
“We both really like being in those situations; we’ve been there before. Initially, he gave me some time; I had said that I need some time to get those quick singles because I need to feel comfortable and confident in my body, and he understood that. After that, it was just a flow. He was doing what he does best, and that gave me some time to get into the game, and I started playing my shots. So we were just reminding ourselves that we have to play proper cricket shots and play to our strengths,” he added.
Speaking on his return to the team and how he got into his stride to score his 6th ODI century, Rahul said: “This is my first international match after a long time. I played a couple of practice games, but we all know the intensity is not the same. So, when I walked in, I had that initial nervousness. It took me 10-15 balls to just calm myself down and get my feet moving, get my mind thinking of the right things.
“Then, when I hit one or two boundaries, all those things, the fogginess in your clarity, went away, and it became like before. I was looking at the ball, looking at the situation, and you see what you have to do. But just when I got my rhythm, it started raining. Unfortunately, it started raining, and I had to wait for a whole day.”
“Today we came back and had to wait for the innings to start. So I had to restart the innings again. So, again, the first 10-15 balls were sort of nervy, and after that, once you start playing, once you start to hit a few balls in the middle, you forget about those things, and then you start thinking about where you can score runs and what I have to do. So, yeah, that’s how I felt, and that doesn’t happen too often when you play for a continuous period of time,” the 31-year-old further stated.
–IANS