"Focus on cricket and not on what is being said"- Amit Mishra's advice to KL Rahul 

Veteran Indian leg-spinner Amit Mishra feels KL Rahul should just avoid whatever is being said about his batting and just try and focus on how he can improve as a batter.

The opener is under some pressure and even former cricketers like Venkatesh Prasad have criticized him time and again for his repeated failures. Rahul has also been stripped of the vice-captaincy for the last two Tests of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023.

In an exclusive chat with Sportskeeda on the sidelines of the JioCinema CricStream showcase, here's what Amit Mishra had to say about whether a short break could help KL Rahul:

"It differs from player to player. As much as I have seen him practice with me, he works really hard on his game. I would advise him to focus on cricket and not on what is being said. He has worked hard for the past 4-5 years and has earned his place in the team so I feel he should continue to focus on his process and also switch off when needed. He just needs to go to every nets session and decide to improve his batting by 2-4 percent."

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Amit Mishra on Ravi Bishnoi's action

Amit Mishra has been snapped up by the Lucknow Supergiants in the IPL 2023 season and this could be a great opportunity for young Ravi Bishnoi to enhance his skills as a wrist-spinner.

Bishnoi, who was a part of the reserves in India's T20 World Cup 2022 squad, has suddenly disappeared from the selectors' plans. Here's what Mishra stated on the changes that the young wrist-spinner needs to make in his bowling:

"The action of wrist spinners depends on a lot of factors like arm-speed. I feel Bishnoi might need to change his action a little bit if he wants to add more options to his bowling that the stock ball which is googly. He needs to be groomed and ofcourse I will try to communicate with him when we meet in the LSG camp and will try my best to help him get those variations."

Amit Mishra also opened up on the importance of wrist spinners not getting defensive when hit for runs. He added:

"Cricket now has changed a lot and sometimes spinners tend to get defensive in their bowling. In such times, it is important to back your strength and also work on adding more skills to your repertoire. That needs proper guidance and I will definitely try my best to pass on the information to Bishnoi."

It will be interesting to see if a strong IPL 2023 season awaits the likes of KL Rahul and Ravi Bishnoi as both need some consistent performances to gain confidence.