Rahane must play mentor in Royals
It’s a very likeable team, the Rajasthan Royals. When it got embroiled in the illegal betting and spot-fixing scandal and was penalised with a two-year ban, the face of the franchise Rahul Dravid fronted up. RR took ownership of their mistakes and are back.
They have played five matches so far and won just two, so it’s not been a happy comeback. They had some serious setbacks even before the IPL season began, losing Steve Smith, their designated captain and in a way mentor, being one.
Captaining an IPL team is a bit like an international player captaining his Ranji team. He does what a captain is generally expected to do, but more is expected from him.
Like with state associations, IPL team owners expect their captains to mentor the wide-eyed, young, domestic Indian players in the squad, so also the emerging overseas players.
T20 as a concept is ruthless. It mandates your best performance all the time. A bowler cannot be bowling only 80% of his ability and hope to survive; he will be taken to the cleaners if he does that.
So also the batsmen. “I am not quite feeling 100% today so maybe I will take it a little easy tonight,” Boom! You have signed your death warrant as a batsman.
Form can be up and down but your commitment can never be. And to be in good form in T20s what’s needed is high confidence. This is an imperative because you are trying to achieve results all the time.
In the longer formats you can take some time out in trying to get your confidence up through the course of the match. But in T20s, you have to be mentally upbeat from ball one whether you are a batsman or bowler. That is why I believe mentoring becomes a key activity in any IPL side.
Some are confident individuals and it takes a lot for their confidence levels to sink, but these are rare players. However, most are vulnerable to mood and confidence swings dependant on their performance on the night.
A team that keeps its players’ confidence up no matter what is one that will have continued success in T20s. Ajinkya Rahane must become that mentor for Rajasthan Royals.
VALUE FOR MONEY
That was exactly the start KL Rahul was aiming for after fetching ~11.5 crore in the player auction. The wicket-keeper batsman, who missed IPL 2017 due to shoulder injury, has teamed up perfectly with Chris Gayle. The West Indies veteran arrives in awesome form, having notched a century and two fifties at a strike rate of 170.89 in the three matches he has played so far. The duo was instrumental in taking KXIP to the top of the points table with three consecutive victories.
Kings XI Punjab skipper Ravichandran Ashwin was pleased
with how the two have played. “KL looked like a million dollars, and well, Chris is Chris,” he said.
However, therein lies the problem for Kings XI Punjab. Thanks to the brilliant form of the openers, the middle-order has hardly been tested. Besides Rahul and Gayle, Karun Nair is the only batsman with a 35-plus score.
The opening spell of left-arm paceman Trent Boult will thus be crucial for the hosts and a couple of quick wickets at the top of the innings can do wonders for Delhi Daredevils. They can also opt for England pacer Liam Plunkett to boost the attack.
However, Gautam Gambhir’s side are struggling. The batting has been a one-man show. Rishabh Pant is the only consistent performer with 223 runs at a strike rate of 176.98.
A lack of support from his teammates has prevented the team from posting big totals and that is a major reason why DD are struggling at the bottom of the points table. Gambhir, Shreyas Iyer and Jason Roy have all scored one half-century each, but consistency has been a major problem for all three batsmen.