KL Rahul - a missed opportunity for CSK

As we chew on the ruins of the season gone by, it’s hard to think past KL Rahul who would have been the perfect replacement for Ambati in the team. KL has always been an underrated player, who can arrive at 4 and then dominate the game.

His exploits in IPL plus the fact that he does carry team in situations, should have been enough for CSK management to have gone the full distance in securing his services. He might have become yellow forever but it’s now hard to see him being released by Delhi Capitals for a foreseeable future.

Although next season’s team is shaping up well however the importance of player like KL can never be underestimated. His ability to manage game along with aggressive players above and after him would have made him the most potent batsmen in IPL for years to come.

The thing with KL is that his game is simple and once he arrives, it’s very difficult for anyone to dislodge him.

Big teams are not formed by big egos; they are formed by players who stand up in big occasions. KL is a perfect example, and I am really stung by the fact that CSK management didn’t think to go for him up to even 15/17 Cr.

How CSK managed to put up such a poor show at auction with so many miscalculations will remain a mystery and one can only hope they have now realized that T20 has moved on and they need to dump their medieval methods.

Investment in KL should have been the only thought as he would have answered so many questions. Investing in Conway at that price and going for Ashwin was a poor call (with Noor in the team).

KL should have been backed, and CSK should have a gone in for Buttler as well. We would have ended with at least one of them for sure, solving the batting problem that we are still grappling with.

Although one can argue Brevis has been like for like for Buttler, but Brevis has been an afterthought! It might as well be the case that we have found our future super star, but hard to think we would have gone for Brevis had team performed marginally better!

Only time will tell if KL ever makes his way into CSK; however you feel that CSK had the golden chance to secure services of a generational talent, whose achievements gets overshadowed by other performances but when your team is in crisis you need a player like KL in your corner.

Wish you all the best KL, although not against CSK 🙂.