File image of KL Rahul
Indian wicketkeeper-batsman KL Rahul on Monday admitted that he never dreamt of scoring a century in his ODI debut although he was a lot more confident than what he was in his first Test match. Rahul said this in reply to a question posed by BCCI's Twitter handle during the cricketer's Q&A session on Sunday. Rahul posted a video on Monday to tell the answer.
"When you went out to bat in your debut ODI, were you confident of getting a 100? #AskKL," asked BCCI.
"Well, I was definitely a lot more confident than my first Test match. But I never dreamt of getting a hundred on my ODI debut. The only thing going on in my mind was to use the opportunity. I had come into this tournament scoring runs in the IPL and my confidence was high. I just wanted to go out there and enjoy myself, bat as long as possible and win the game for my team," replied Rahul.
— K L Rahul (@klrahul11) May 11, 2020
Rahul had made his ODI debut against Zimbabwe in June 2016 and he scored 100 off 115 deliveries laced with seven boundaries and a six. India had comfortably won the match, scripting a nine-wicket victory in the chase of 169. Rahul was named as the Man of the Match for his batting efforts.
Rahul had headed into the tournament on the back of a "career-defining IPL season" as admitted by him during the Q&A session. He had scored 397 runs in 14 games for Royal Challengers Bangalore at 44.11 and a strike rate of 146.49 with four half-centuries.
Rahul has now become an indispensable part of India's ODI set up and is now the team's primary wicketkeeping option.