KL Rahul's conservative approach and the Lucknow Super Giants' skipper batting till the 19th over of the Eliminator against Royal Challengers Bangalore has prompted the likes of former India chief coach Ravi Shastri, Sanjay Manjrekar and New Zealand legend Daniel Vettori to say that the cricketer seriously erred in the must-win game at the Eden Gardens. LSG, chasing a mammoth 207, were eliminated from IPL 2022 after losing to RCB by 14 runs. Manjrekar was the most scathing of the former cricketers, saying that Rahul is "temperamentally not suited to take this kind of a responsibility (captaincy)". "We have seen enough of KL Rahul to now know that when he becomes the captain, the key player of the side... Virat Kohli loved that kind of responsibility, (MS) Dhoni loved it, Rohit Sharma, barring this season, generally likes that kind of responsibility. Maybe, KL Rahul temperamentally is not suited to take this kind of a responsibility, where he is the man who has got to get the job done. They (captains) are made of different mettle, and maybe KL Rahul isn't," opined Manjrekar on Espncricinfo's T20 Time:Out.
Rahul opened the innings and was out at the fag end of the 19th over but could manage just 79 runs off 58 balls at at strike rate of 136.20. Till the 16th over, his strike rate was a dismal 120, which really did not go down well with Manjrekar. "So as a coach, I would drill that into his head and tell him that I am not expecting you to win the game (bat all through). You just go and have fun, and funnily enough you will see the results start coming. I believe, he has a much better strike rate at the international level than at the IPL level, because he is just one of the many batters playing alongside Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and the others... so he just goes out there and expresses himself. His strike rate of 120 until the 16th over, that's dangerous; that's leaving too much even for a player like himself," added Manjrekar. "Every time (in the Eliminator) he decided to play the big shots it came off. He played a couple of terrific shots against (Josh) Hazlewood, and he can do it when he wants to. But he just has this very deep-rooted belief or an attitude or approach that he wants to bat longer rather than quicker. And if I were his coach, I would take that decision out of his hand even if he is captain," added Manjrekar. Former New Zealand skipper Vettori said that the conservative approach in IPL is fraught with risks.
"The conservative approach leans to having to be ultra-risky at the end, and so when you have a player of that skill, and we have seen KL Rahul take down teams time and again, you always wonder 'why don't you go earlier... you sort of de-risk the back-end in chasing. 14-15 (runs) can be done on this (Eden) ground. "So, a couple of risks through the powerplay and that 60 off 42 looks so much better, and it takes so much pressure off the deep end," opined Vettori. Former India chief coach Ravi Shastri too was unimpressed with Rahul's approach in the Eliminator. "They should have gone a little earlier. Sometimes, you wait too long but here, between the ninth and the 14th over, there should have been someone who should have been targeted, especially in that partnership," Shastri said on Star Sports. "When (Deepak) Hooda and Rahul were going, I think even though he did as well as he did, KL could have taken a little more chances there because Hooda was going. Take a little more chances, and he could have targeted someone between the ninth and the 13th over because Harshal Patel was going to come back in the end with his full quota of overs. If they had got the required rate down at the stage, that would have made RCB a little nervous," added Shastri.