IPL 2021: KL Rahul asks for balls to be changed during the 2nd innings to manage 'huge disadvantage'

Punjab Kings skipper KL Rahul believes that dew poses a 'huge disadvantage' to teams batting first in grounds like the Wankhade Stadium. He called for the use of multiple balls to manage this and make the game more 'fair' for the bowling side.

Punjab Kings suffered a heavy, 6-wicket thumping against the Delhi Capitals on Sunday. Although they had set a seemingly par total of 195, Shikhar Dhawan's 92 helped the Capitals gun it down with 10 balls to spare.

Dew played a major role in the chase as pacers found it difficult to grip the bowl even after some animatic rubbing with towels. Swamped balls also resulted in some no-balls which proved detrimental to Punjab Kings' defense as well.

Speaking in the post-match presentation, KL Rahul agreed to former New Zealand pacer Simon Doul's suggestion of regularly changing the balls in the 2nd dig. KL Rahul also revealed that he had asked the on-field umpires for the same during the game, although to no avail.

"When we come to Wankhede, bowling second is always a challenge. We as a bowling unit try to prepare for such conditions. But again, it does get difficult in a game situation and against these quality batters. I think so (if the ball should be regularly changed during the 2nd innings), I think that will only be fair to the team bowling second. I'm not saying that because I'm on the losing side. That's only fair that teams bowling second don't have such a huge disadvantage," said KL Rahul.

He added in this regard:

"Bowlers try to practice their skills with the wet ball, but it's always difficult to do that when you go on the field in the pressure. I asked the umpires to change the ball a couple of times, but it's not in the rule book so that's how the game goes and we need to take it."

It’s easy to see where Punjab lost this game. Be interesting to see if their think tank addresses it. #pbksvsdc

— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) April 18, 2021

KL Rahul contributed a 51-ball 61 to his team's total. Mayank Agarwal (69 off 36), Deepak Hooda (22 off 13) and Shahrukh Khan (15 off 5) also chipped in. With the ball, Jhye Richardson took 2 wickets while Arshdeep Singh and Riley Meridith also picked up one wicket each.

"Victory would've been sweet on my birthday" - KL Rahul

Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul shake hands after the match, (PC: BCCI/IPL)

KL Rahul, who celebrated his 29th birthday on Sunday, said it was 'slightly disappointing' not to come up with a win. Rahul remarked that although the target looks below par in hindsight, he and Agarwal even considered 180-190 to be a good total while batting in the middle.

"Victory would've been sweet on my birthday, so it's slightly disappointing. But we have a lot of games, so hopefully we come back stronger and win few games. Right now it looks 10-15 runs short, but batting in the middle I felt 196 was really good. The first half of the overs, me and Mayank were thinking the same thing, we thought 180-190 would have been great on this wicket. Shikhar batted well, so congratulations to them," concluded KL Rahul.

Punjab Kings will now lock horns with David Warner's Sunrisers Hyderabad on April 21 in Chennai.

💔#SaddaPunjab #IPL2021 #PunjabKings #DCvPBKS pic.twitter.com/Jg4ilIZ8Fn

— Punjab Kings (@PunjabKingsIPL) April 18, 2021