Indian bowling coach Paras Mhambrey praises KL Rahul for his impressive knock in India’s clash against Australia in the World Cup 2023.
Paras Mhambrey lauds KL Rahul on the match against Australia
India is scheduled to play in the fifth match of the World Cup 2023 against Australia on October 08, at MA Chidambaram Stadium where India won the match by six wickets.
Virat Kohli and KL Rahul were impressive as they had a partnership score of 165 runs which helped India to chase the target. Winning the toss, Australia chose to bat where David Warner and Mitchell Marsh opened the innings while Jasprit Bumrah opened the bowling attack.
David Warner had a good start as he scored 41 and was dismissed by Kuldeep Yadav, while Mitchell Marsh was sent out with a duck by Bumrah. Warner became the fastest to score 1000 runs in ODI World Cups with a boundary on the seventh over.
Steven Smith scored 46 on 71 deliveries including four boundaries before getting dismissed by Ravindra Jadeja. He was impressive as he dismissed Marnus with 27 runs and Alex Carey with a duck. His 3/28 figures in the match are his career best. With his three wickets dismissal, he joins the list of most wickets for India vs Australia in ODIs.
Kuldeep Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah dismissed two wickets each while Mohammed Siraj, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Hardik Pandya dismissed one wicket each.
Australian batters struggled to score runs against India’s intense bowling attack and was sent out at regular interval. By the end, Australia scored 199 runs losing all 10 wickets on the 3rd ball of the last over.
With the target of 200 runs, India started their innings where Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan opened the innings while Mitchell Starc opened the bowling attack.
Ishan Kishan was sent out with a duck on the fourth ball of the innings by Mitchell Starc. With the dismissal of the Indian skipper Rohit Sharma and Shreyas Iyer by Hazlewood on a duck in the second over, India was down to three wickets for two runs by the end of 2nd over. Hazlewood dismissed two wickets on his first over in the innings.
But with the efforts of Kohli and KL Rahul, India was back on track as Kohli scored 85 runs and KL Rahul scored 97 runs. With the dismissal of Kohli, Hardik Pandya joined KL Rahul to lead India in the path of victory.
On this occasion, the bowling coach said, “We always knew what Rahul brings to the team, the quality of a batter he is, especially in the middle order. We need someone, and he is that kind of a player who plays spin well, also the fast bowlers and the seamers,” Mhambrey said during an interview.
“So, in that sense, he gives you stability and confidence. And, the way he has played in the past, we definitely trusted him, and it’s good to have him back.”
“Looking at the way they (Australia) approached the last few games, we realized that they went hard in the first ten overs. We knew with the ball being hard, it does come on to the wicket,” Mhambrey said.
“The approach has been very simple. They went hard against the seamers and spinners.
“So, picking early wickets was really important for us, and that made the difference, as they lost (Mitchell) Marsh early. And that kind of tiled the batting, putting (Steven) Smith with (David) Warner. So, they had a different set-up to go with.”
“That’s the beauty of this game. In a team combination, you want variety. And for us, all our spinners offer different kinds of options and varieties,” he said.
He also praised the spinners Ashwin and Jadeja for their impressive bowling performance against Australia.
“All three of them have the ability, especially someone like Ash (R Ashwin) or (Ravindra) Jadeja. They are the kind of options that you can use in the first powerplay and the middle. Kuldeep (Yadav) is also another option that we can use.”
India will be playing their next match against Afghanistan on October 11 at Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi.
