Mumbai: Star India batsman KL Rahul said the heartbreaking World Cup semifinal loss to New Zealand, after a near-perfect show in the group stages, “continues to haunt” him and his teammates.
In a chat show ‘The Mind Behind’, Rahul said if he was given a chance to change the result of any one match in the past, it would be the 2019 World Cup semifinal.
“It has to be the World Cup semifinal. I think most of us are still not over that loss, it is still haunts us sometimes,” he said.
“I can’t imagine what the senior players must have felt but you know in a World Cup it just becomes even harder knowing that we played so well in the entire tournament. I still wake up to that nightmare sometimes.” India were perhaps the most dominant side in the group stage of the tournament, winning each of their matches except the one against hosts England.
The Virat Kohli-led side was the favourite going into the semifinal against eventual runner-up New Zealand but lost the contest by 18 runs. Just like other Indian cricketers, Rahul too is currently enjoying a rare break from the game because of the COVID-19 pandemic-forced lockdown. “Let me talk about myself. I’ve just been sitting and doing some homework. I’ve been watching some videos from the past and taking notes of the things I was doing right and where I could improve,” he signed off. Kannur Lokesh Rahul, commonly known as KL Rahul, plays for Karnataka in domestic cricket and captains Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League. He is a right-handed batsman and a wicket-keeper.
Rahul made his international debut in 2014 and scored his maiden Test century in his second Test match.
He became the first Indian to score a century on One Day International debut, and became the third Indian to score a century in all three formats of international cricket.Lokesh Rahul set the record for the fastest batsman to have scored centuries in all three formats in just 20 innings surpassing the record of Ahmed Shehzad who took 76 innings.
He is the first player in T20I history to score a century when batting at number 4 position or lower (110*).
On 3 July 2018, Rahul smashed his second T20 International ton against England. He is also the first Indian batsman to be dismissed hit-wicket in T20Is. (PTI)
