KL Rahul

Former England captain Kevin Pietersen has hailed Lucknow Super Giants captain KL Rahul as a dynamic player who is going to bear the fruits of success in the years to come because he has “matured way beyond his age”.

KL Rahul has been scoring runs for fun in the most exciting season of IPL and the explosive right-handed batsman is second after Rajasthan Royals’ opener Jos Buttler in the Orange Cap standings.

Praising the 30-year-old batter’s belligerent knocks in the IPL 2022, Pietersen stated it’s never easy for a player to consistently do well for every franchise but the star India cricketer is doing it year after year.

Speaking on Cricket Live on Star Sports, Pietersen said: “He (KL Rahul) is such a dynamic player and that’s going to bear the fruit of his success for many a year. To continue scoring runs for different franchises is a damn hard (thing) to do because there’s so much pressure going into these new franchises. There’s so much pressure on you when you get bought for such big money. But when you have technique as solid as his, you’ve got a mindset as good as his, and you’re calm as much as he’s calm.”

“And you can hear that in the way he talks to us. His presence of mind is so calm. He’s matured way beyond his age. He’ll just be proud of what he does and he’ll have to continue to make sure that he focuses on his job because captaincy aside, franchise aside, his team does well when he’s scored big runs,” he added.

Former India captain and former India head coach Ravi Shastri also claimed that the added responsibility of leading the side is bringing the best out of KL Rahul and either he or Buttler will end up winning the Orange Cap by the end of IPL 2022.

Speaking on Cricket Live on Star Sports, Shastri said: “He’s got a solid all-round game, the technique is good he’s got all the shots, great temperament, and good presence of mind. With the responsibility of leading a new franchise is getting the best out of him. You asked me at the start of the season, Orange Cap, I said KL Rahul because the openers have the best chance. So, it will be between him and (Jos) Buttler. If you are an opening batsman who’s firing then your franchise is going to do well in the IPL because those are not the players at the back who come and do the damage. If you get an opener who’s firing then it’s half the job done already.”

Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar also lauded KL Rahul for the way he paced his innings against Mumbai Indians when the Karnataka cricketer slammed a sensational century.

Speaking on Cricket Live on Star Sports, Gavaskar said: “It is fabulous to see the way he’s paced his innings (against Mumbai Indians). How he increased his tempo, how he went from one gear to second gear to third gear and towards the end (of the innings) he was into the fifth gear was fabulous.”

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