File image of KL Rahul
Indian wicketkeeper-batsman KL Rahul on Monday admitted that he never dreamt of scoring a century in his ODI debut although he was a lot more confident than what he was in his first Test match. Rahul said this in reply to a question posed by BCCI's Twitter handle during the cricketer's Q&A session on Sunday. Rahul posted a video on Monday to tell the answer.
"When you went out to bat in your debut ODI, were you confident of getting a 100? #AskKL," asked BCCI.
"Well, I was definitely a lot more confident than my first Test match. But I never dreamt of getting a hundred on my ODI debut. The only thing going on in my mind was to use the opportunity. I had come into this tournament scoring runs in the IPL and my confidence was high. I just wanted to go out there and enjoy myself, bat as long as possible and win the game for my team," replied Rahul.
Rahul had made his ODI debut against Zimbabwe in June 2016 and he scored 100 off 115 deliveries laced with seven boundaries and a six. India had comfortably won the match, scripting a nine-wicket victory in the chase of 169. Rahul was named as the Man of the Match for his batting efforts.
Rahul had headed into the tournament on the back of a "career-defining IPL season" as admitted by him during the Q&A session. He had scored 397 runs in 14 games for Royal Challengers Bangalore at 44.11 and a strike rate of 146.49 with four half-centuries.
Rahul has now become an indispensable part of India's ODI set up and is now the team's primary wicketkeeping option.
