IPL 2020: Anil Kumble happy with KL Rahul as captain and wicketkeeper of KXIP

Kings XI Punjab head coach Anil Kumble feels appointing KL Rahul as captain was the right decision because he knows the team better than Kumble. While Rahul has been associated with the Punjab franchise since 2018, the former Indian captain was appointed head coach earlier this year.

“It was very important to choose the captain [for the season]. I have known KL, seen him as a young kid growing up in Bengaluru, and as a cricketer. It’s his first season as skipper but he knows the team better than me. He has played here for two seasons. I think we have all the ingredients to build a solid team,” Kumble told Sportstar on Tuesday.

KL Rahul will be taking over the reins from Ravichandran Ashwin, who was traded to the Delhi Capitals for INR 1.5 crore and left-arm spinner Jagdeesha Suchith.

Kumble said KL Rahul will be the first-choice wicketkeeper in the side. The opener had kept wickets for Karnataka in the past, but it was the lack of wicketkeeping options for KXIP in IPL 2018 that forced Rahul to don the gloves on a permanent basis.

“I think KL will obviously take up keeping and then, we will take it from there,” Kumble, who served as a mentor to the Mumbai Indians from 2013 to 2015, added.

Interestingly, KL Rahul is being given preference over Nicholas Pooran, who recently scored a 45-ball 100 for the Guyana Amazon Warriors in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL).

KL Rahul’s role behind the stumps

KL Rahul started keeping wickets for India during the Australia series in January this year. Image Credits: Hindustan Times

KL Rahul has recently started keeping wickets for India after MS Dhoni’s omission from the side and specialised keeper Rishabh Pant going through a lean phase.

Shifting base to Punjab has indeed worked well for KL Rahul, who has scored 1,252 of his 1977 IPL runs across the previous two seasons. While he recorded the fastest-ever IPL fifty (off just 14 balls) in IPL 2018, he scored his first IPL hundred last season.

Rahul finished as the third-highest run-scorer with 659 runs in IPL 2018, and he will definitely look to take his performances up a notch and help KXIP become IPL champions for the first time when IPL 2020 starts on September 19th.