Former India opener Gautam Gambhir has opined that KL Rahul will have an outstanding IPL campaign, much like the one Virat Kohli had in 2016, as he believes that Rahul's best is yet to come.
The Punjab Kings captain, before IPL 14 was declared postponed due to the Covid-19 outbreak within multiple franchise bubbles, scored 331 runs at an average of 66 and with a strike-rate of 136. Rahul, who has been averaging over 50 in three seasons, smashed four half-centuries in the first half of the season and is currently the second-highest run-getter of this edition, only behind Shikhar Dhawan's 380.
While speaking on Star Sports' show ‘Game Plan’, Gambhir stated that we are yet to see what “he can achieve in his batting” despite being among the runs.
"We haven’t seen the best of KL Rahul. Yes, he has got runs, but we still haven’t seen, what he can achieve in his batting. You could have a season like Virat Kohli had once. He’s that kind of a player in white-ball cricket, where he can get 2-3 hundreds in a season and at a very good strike rate as well. And I hope that it happens, because it has been a disappointment for Punjab Kings.
{{/usCountry}}"We haven’t seen the best of KL Rahul. Yes, he has got runs, but we still haven’t seen, what he can achieve in his batting. You could have a season like Virat Kohli had once. He’s that kind of a player in white-ball cricket, where he can get 2-3 hundreds in a season and at a very good strike rate as well. And I hope that it happens, because it has been a disappointment for Punjab Kings.
{{/usCountry}}"After all, last time around, they had put a lot of faith on Glenn Maxwell and he didn’t fire; this time around Nicholas Pooran didn’t fire. When you start putting a lot of faith in International players and they don’t perform, so it puts a lot of pressure on the captain as well," remarked former Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain Gambhir.
Karnataka batsman Rahul heads into the second half of the season on the back of impressive form. In the India-England series, he scored 315 runs in four matches at an average of 39.38.