KL Rahul said that ahead of the India vs South Africa ODI series starting at the JSCA Stadium in Ranchi from November 30, the return of players like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma to the team has instilled confidence in the dressing room. In the pre-match press conference, KL Rahul, who will be leading the Indian team in the absence of skipper Shubman Gill, stressed the importance of having senior players like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma in the team. He said that his presence and experience boosts the confidence of the dressing room and supports the young players.
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Rahul said that his importance is very high at any time. Having senior players in the team definitely fills the dressing room with more confidence. His presence and experience helps many players in the dressing room and the team. So, we’re really happy they’re here. The right-handed batsman said that winning is the most important thing. That’s what we’re trying to focus on and forget about what happened a week ago, try to focus on tomorrow’s game and see how we can put together a collective performance that helps us get a win and then move on to the next ground from here and see how we can do it again and try to win this series. So, that is the most important thing and that is what we are thinking about. Obviously, having a stable team helps and having some similar faces helps the dressing room too.
Rahul praised Virat Kohli’s ability to rotate the strike and said that taking singles is as important as hitting boundaries in ODI and Test cricket. He said that Kohli is an expert in this skill, and young players, including himself, often learn from both Kohli and Rohit Sharma about improving the strike rotation. He said that in ODI cricket and Test cricket, taking singles is as important as hitting boundaries, perhaps not so much in the T20 format. Virat has done this very well in his career. We have watched Virat and tried to learn from him. Even in the dressing room, we all talked to him and Rohit about how we can improve as batsmen, how we can rotate the strike. Obviously, he is adept at doing this in ODI cricket. So, we are very happy that he is back in the dressing room and he is very excited to be here and play these matches.
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In the ODI series, after the first match in Ranchi, both the teams will clash in Raipur, followed by the final match in Visakhapatnam. The Indian team would like to make a comeback in ODIs after a disappointing 2-0 defeat in the Test series.