It was just another day in KL Rahul’s life. He was about to don the white jersey in the second Test match against South Africa. He had already hit a superb hundred in the first Test where India went onto win. And now when it looked set that he will take the field under Kohli with an eye on a 2-0 lead, the skipper himself came up to him and broke a piece of news that would change his demeanor. The captain said that his back was not okay, in that case, the vice-captain will have to lead.
“Like everyone else, it came to me as a huge surprise to me. I was the vice-captain. As a vice-captain you slowly prepare yourself to become the captain in due time. But then I didn’t expect it to come to me so quickly and in such circumstances: the morning of the game, Virat (Kohli) came to me in the bus and said, ‘My back is not feeling great, you might have to captain the team,” said Rahul in a chat on the Red Bull Cricket Room hosted by Clubhouse.
He added that he it didn’t rattle him at all as he always gets into ‘the mindset’ whenever he dons the white jersey for India, captain or not. “It didn’t put me off or my mindset didn’t change a lot. All of us, in some way or the other, when we play the game we are our own captain and in our head we are playing situations like we are a captain.”
He said he felt very lucky that he was among the very few who had the opportunity to lead the country. Although, India went onto lose the match and also went onto lose the third Test match under Virat Kohli. This meant India would lose the three-match series 1-2 which they had expected to win 3-0.
“When that ‘C’ in the team list comes, it does feel new and it is something you are proud of. It is an honour not many people get and it is something you always dream of and I was very happy, very grateful,” concluded KL Rahul.
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