‘Strike rate’ has become the new hot topic in Indian cricket after former India captain Sunil Gavaskar ripped apart Royal Challengers Bengaluru batter Virat Kohli on Saturday for hitting back at critics in an explosive interview last week during IPL 2024 over criticism on his sluggish scoring rate in T20. Amid the row, Lucknow Super Giants captain KL Rahul took a major U-turn on his old comment on strike rate when asked about his new approach in the ongoing season.
Rahul’s tempered-down approach in T20 cricket has often been subject to criticism, but the India batter has always reckoned that the metric of strike rate in the shortest format is an “overrated” topic. “Look, I think strike rate is very, very overrated. For me, it’s only about how I can win games for my team,” Rahul, who was then the skipper of Kings XI Punjab, said in 2020.
Three years later, he reiterated the same ahead of the start of the 2023 IPL season for Lucknow Super Giants, where he added that: “Strike rate depends upon the demand, like if you chase 140 – you don’t need to go with 200 strike rate – it depends upon the current situation.”
However, on Sunday, on being asked about his new approach this season for LSG as an opener, Rahul accepted that amid the changing dynamics of the game, where 220 is becoming almost a norm, strike rate has emerged to become an important factor.
“There’s been a lot of talk about strike-rates and the format is changing. Even 220 is now safe. It is evolving,” said Rahul after LSG won the toss and opted to bowl first.
In the IPL 2024 season, Rahul has scored 406 runs so far for Lucknow in 10 matches at a strike-rate of 142.96.
What is Sunil Gavaskar vs Virat Kohli strike-rate row?
Earlier on Saturday, Gavaskar was left fuming at Kohli, who had blasted his critics over his strike rate against spinners after scoring 70 not out of 44 balls against Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad last week. The former India opener, speaking live on-air, said that the commentators only criticised him when he would get out before the slog overs after registering a strike rate of below 120.
“Commentators questioned only when the strike rate was 118. I’m not too sure. I don’t watch too many matches, so I don’t know what the other commentators have said otherwise. But if you have a strike of 118 and then you get out in the 14th or the 15th with a strike-rate of 118, I mean, if you want applause for that, that’s a little bit different. That’s different,” he told Star Sports.
Gavaskar also lashed out at Kohli for responding to “outside noise” amid cricketers constantly mentioning that they care less about what critics say about their game.
“All these guys talk about, oh we don’t care about outside noise. Then why are you replying to any outside noise or whatever it is. We all played a bit of cricket, not a lot of cricket. We don’t have agendas. We speak about what we see. We don’t necessarily have any likes and dislikes. Even if we have likes and dislikes, we actually speak on what is happening,” added Gavaskar.
