Opinion

World Cup semi-final loss still haunts: KL Rahul

Written by Vishwas Gupta

India’s star player KL Rahul got up close and personal with television presenter and commentator Suhail Chandhok in the fifth episode of ‘The Mind Behind’.

Asked if he could change any match, Rahul said: “It has to be the World Cup semi-final. I think most of us are still not over that loss, it is still haunts us sometimes. I can’t imagine what the senior players must have felt but you know in a World Cup it just becomes even harder and knowing that we played so well in the entire tournament. Yeah, so, you I still wake up to that nightmare sometimes!”

Asked if he had to pick one cricketer to bat for his life, Rahul said: “I’ll go with Virat (Kohli) because I know, everybody knows he is a great player. We share a great friendship and he will give it all to save my life.”

Going back to his formative years, Rahul was asked to describe his exact moment where he scored a phenomenal 100 in Sydney.

“I think that innings, that series just changed the way I looked at myself, the confidence that I got from bouncing back so quickly and at an international stage, where, you know it’s a dream for every player, was incredible. I realized that, you know, if I put my mind to it, there are things that I can achieve, that even I had never thought I could. So that innings did give me a great deal of confidence and it just changed who I was as a person and as a cricketer.”

Commenting on social media and how it affects his family, sister or parents and stuff like that: “I think that’s when you get affected the most. And as players when you see that your family’s getting hurt, is when you start to react or you start to feel bad. But yeah, I’m hopeful that people will realize that end of the day, we are people as well. We are trying hard, we do the best, we are having sleepless nights, working ourselves for eight hours, 10 hours a day, sometimes staying away from family, and, you know, going through everything.”

About the author

Vishwas Gupta