India opener KL Rahul is going through a lean patch with just scoring one run in three T20I matches against England in the on-going series in Ahmedabad. While Rahul hasn’t been among runs for sometime, batting coach Vikram Rathour has put his weight behind the right-handed batsman.
"Anybody can have a lean phase. Last one year, I think KL has been our best batsman in the T20 format. He's averaging more than 40 with a strike rate of 145 (Rahul had an average of 44.70 with a strike rate of 141.52 since January 2019 till the start of this series).
"So three failures does not change that fact, that he's maybe the best batsman we have in that format, and he's done really well for us in the past year," he added.
Rathour further went on to say that the opener needs to be backed by the team. "I think this is the time that, as a team, we need to support him. Absolutely sure he will come out of this lean phase that he's going through," the batting coach said at the presser.
Earlier, captain Virat Kohli had also backed Rahul. “He (KL Rahul) has been a champion player. If you look at his stats in the last 2-3 years, they are probably better than anyone in T20. He will continue to be one of our main batters along with Rohit at the top of the order,” Kohli said after the third T20I.
England went 2-1 up in the five-match series on Tuesday at the Narendra Modi Stadium after chasing down a target of 157 by 8 wickets. Riding on an emphatic performance from Jos Buttler who scored 83* off 52 and Jonny Bairstow who notched up an unbeaten 40 off 28, England went over the line in the 19th over.
Kohli scored his second fifty on the trot in the series and remained not out at 77.
The fourth match of the series will take place on Thursday at the same venue.