KL Rahul hopes that head coach Anil Kumble will make the most of the tactics which will help him a lot as he makes his debut as the captain of Kings XI Punjab in the UAE starting September 19. Like the other seven teams, the team of Kings XI Punjab is going through six days of compulsory segregation in the UAE. The team has a lot of Karnataka players in the form of captain Rahul, Mayank Agarwal and Karun Nair, while head coach Kumble is also from Karnataka.
Rahul told the IPL website, “The presence of a person like Anil Kumble will help me a lot in the entire tournament. Being from the same state, I have a very good relationship with him off the field. I think he will make things a lot easier for me as a captain. I know that he will make most of the strategy and I just have to get on the ground and implement the plan,” Rahul said.
Rahul is in very good form for the last two seasons of IPL and he scored 659 and 593 runs in IPL 2018 and 2019 respectively. The return of Glenn Maxwell has strengthened the middle order and the captain emphasized his importance to the team.
“Maxwell has been a part of Kings XI before and was successful with the team. Going into the auction, we were clear that we needed him in the team. On a given day, he has the ability to destroy any bowling attack and in the last few seasons we have realised that our middle-order lacks such players to make an impact,” he added.
In the presence of Rahul and Gayle, Kings XI have one of the most aggressive opening pair of this year’s IPL. The captain hopes that this West Indies star batsman will win the match for his team. “I have played with him for many years and have a very good friendship with him. It is fantastic to have a player like him on the team. He is part of our core group and given his experience, he can win a lot of matches for us.” Kings XI Punjab team still hasn’t won the IPL title. The team’s best performance was in 2014 when the team reached the final.
