"KL Rahul ka catch drop krna may be RR ki strategy hai" - Fans slam as LSG skipper scores 39 off 32 balls vs RR in IPL 2023

Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) captain KL Rahul managed to score 39 off 32 balls at a strike rate of 121.88 against the Rajasthan Royals (RR). The match took place at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Wednesday, April 19.

The 31-year-old failed to convert the start into a big knock despite getting dropped twice by Yashasvi Jaiswal and Jason Holder on scores of six and 12, respectively.

However, Holder held onto the catch the next time as Rahul made his way back to the dugout in the 11th over with the scoreboard reading 82/1.

Fans were disappointed with Rahul’s sluggish batting and questioned whether it was RR’s tactics to drop him in the first place. One user tweeted:

"Ye KL Rahul ka catch drop karna may be RR ki strategy hai. Dot balls jyada hon (Dropping KL Rahul might be RR's strategy to increase dot balls)."

Here are some of the other best Twitter reactions:

KL Rahul has so far aggregated 194 runs in six games in IPL 2023 at a sub-par strike rate of 114.79.

The right-handed batter’s best knock came against the Punjab Kings (PBKS), when he scored 74 off 56 deliveries at a strike rate of 132.14. LSG, however, lost that game by two wickets.

---

“No one’s perfect” – When KL Rahul played down the strike rate debate in T20s

KL Rahul, in a recent interview, played down the importance of the strike rate in the shortest format of the game. He pointed out that what the team requires at a certain stage is something that matters the most.

Speaking at a press conference during the T20I series between India and Australia last September, Rahul said:

"No one's perfect. No one in the dressing room is perfect. Everyone's working towards something and everyone has a certain role to do. Obviously, strike rates are taken on an overall basis."

He continued:

"You'll never see when that batsman has played at a certain strike rate, whether it was important for him to play at 200 strike rate or whether the team could have still won playing at 100-120 strike rate. So these are things that not everybody analyses. So when you look at it, it looks low."

---

Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson (wk & c), Riyan Parag, Shimron Hetmyer, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jason Holder, Trent Boult, Sandeep Sharma, and Yuzvendra Chahal

Lucknow Super Giants (Playing XI): KL Rahul (c), Kyle Mayers, Deepak Hooda, Marcus Stoinis, Krunal Pandya, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Ayush Badoni, Naveen-ul-Haq, Avesh Khan, Yudhvir Singh Charak, and Ravi Bishnoi.

Follow RR vs LSG live score updates here.