XtraTime Web Desk: The loss against New Zealand in the semi-final of the 2019 World Cup still haunts India batsman KL Rahul. India was knocked out of the 2019 World Cup in England, losing to New Zealand by 18 runs. The Karnataka batsman was undone by an out swinger from Matt Henry after scoring just one run. India was reduced to 24/4 inside the first 10 overs with Captain Virat Kohli (1), Rohit Sharma (1) and Dinesh Karthik (6) all returning to the pavilion.
“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 I still wake up to that nightmare sometimes!,” said Rahul in an interview to television presenter and commentator Suhail Chandhok in the fifth episode of ”The Mind Behind”.
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.”
Describing his 100 he got against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Rahul said, “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.”
Lastly, talking about how he is spending his time amidst lockdown, Rahul said: “Me and my family are in Bangalore. We”re all safe. I”m just trying to do whatever I can, in terms of training and keeping busy. I haven”t been or haven”t really got to a place where it”s annoying, I”m hanging in there! But yeah, it is it is quite nice to spend time at home and I remember when we kept playing (the team) for so long, all of us kept wanting a break, and now that we”ve got such a big break, we are like we don”t want such a big break.”