KL Rahul has respect of group, his captaincy has been outstanding: LSG coach Lance Klusener

Lucknow Super Giants assistant coach Lance Klusener has showered praise on captain KL Rahul. The former South African all-rounder said Rahul has the respect of the whole group and his leadership has been outstanding.

LSG made it to the playoffs in the last two editions of the IPL under the captaincy of KL Rahul but the team could not qualify for the last four in the ongoing season. 

LSG has won six out of their 13 matches and has a poor Net Run Rate of -0.787. The KL Rahul-led team will play their last league stage match against Mumbai Indians but doesn’t have any chance to qualify for the playoffs.

“He’s got the respect of the group. In terms of his captaincy, it’s been outstanding. (But) if he looks back, he might just be a little frustrated with the amount of runs that he scored,” Klusener said.

Klusener reckons Rahul could not bat in the topmost gear as LSG kept losing wickets at the other end. Rahul has scored 465 runs in 13 matches of IPL 2024 at an average of 35.77 and a strike rate of 136.36. 

“He’s had some great performances over the tournament. He’s had to rebuild a lot of the times. We’ve lost wickets around him. We haven’t allowed him to play his natural game,” Klusener said.

“It’s easy to just sit and think, ‘oh, well, he hasn’t had a great tournament’. But if you look at his numbers, they’re actually not bad at all, considering the circumstances that he’s had to bat,” he added.

Klusener, who was at his absolute best in the 1999 World Cup, said the team has failed to come up with a collective effort with both and ball in IPL 2024.

“It’s just a consistency as a group that has led us down this year. We haven’t scored enough runs and again, we haven’t taken enough wickets as well. You put all that together and that’s why you end up where we are on the log.”

LSG will take on Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on Friday.