Batting legend Brian Lara picked India’s wicketkeeper-batsman KL Rahul as his favourite player in international cricket at the moment. Lara heaped huge praise on Rahul and said the 29-year-old is someone he would pay to watch to bat.
“Brian, who is your favourite player in international cricket at the moment?” Asked Ponting while hosting a discussion for 7 cricket, the host broadcaster for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy with Lara and Sunil Gavaskar.
“That’s easy! It’s KL Rahul. If you’re talking about the two teams that are playing, KL Rahul it is for me. He is someone I’d pay to watch to bat,” said Lara.
The West Indies great talked about Rahul’s technical ability to bat in T20Is and said he is exceptional to watch.
“In the world Jofra Archer is excellent, Nicholas Pooran is there but I just love watching KL Rahul, especially in T20s, I know he’s going into Test cricket but in T20 when you see guy batting correctly with the ability to score runs with traditional shots, is just exceptional to watch,” added Lara.
After more than a year, Rahul will make his comeback in India’s red-ball team in upcoming Test series against Australia. Rahul is riding high on confidence after consistent show with the bat in 2020. Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting also talked highly of Rahul and emphasized on his evolution in the last 2 years.
“He’s an interesting one for me. If you wind the clock 2-3 years back, he was probably an out and out technically correct Test match batsman but what he’s been able to do with his T20 batting in the last 2 IPLs has been unbelievable. He’s probably turned himself into a better white-ball player now. That doesn’t happen that often,” Ponting added.
The much-anticipated Test series between India and Australia is all set to kickstart from December 17. The series will witness some of the modern-day stalwarts like Virat Kohli, Steve Smith, Cheteshwar Pujara, David Warner, Ravichandran Ashwin, Nathan Lyon, locking horns against each other. The series is going to be part of the World Test Championship which will make it even more intense as Australia are currently leading the points table, with India just behind them in second.