'He is playing for the country, not gully cricket' - Suniel Shetty opens up on KL Rahul's form

KL Rahul has been having a tough time with the bat for the past few months and his poor form has been the hot topic in the cricketing fraternity. Recently, his father-in-law and actor Suniel Shetty revealed that the family does not discuss cricket at home and try to take his mind off the game.

Rahul married Shetty’s daughter Athiya Shetty in January 2023 in a private ceremony. Further talking about Rahul’s poor form, Shetty said that he can’t teach him cricket as he is playing for the country and not gully cricket.

"We don’t discuss about failure or not doing well because we all know that they (his children) are fighters. We show more love. We talk about everything else in the world and try to take your mind off. I can’t teach KL Rahul how to play cricket. He is playing for the country, is not playing gully cricket or for somebody to comment and say ‘aise khelo, waise khelo’. If I would have said it would have been for gully (street) cricket,” he told RJ Siddharth Kannan.

Shetty further said that Rahul his going through a tough time but there is nothing to discuss as his bat will do the talking for him. 

“I can see a young boy going through tough time but willing to stand up there and realise and work hard. Aur baat kya karega, balla hi baat krega baaki to baat karke fayeda hi nahi hai (What is there to discuss. At the end, his bat will do the talking) This is not films where as a team we can go out. He has to go out there, face that ball and play and he will and he continues to do that,” he added.

KL Rahul hasn't got his IPL 2023 campaign off to a good start

Rahul lost his place in the Indian Test team recently after a poor run of form in the longest format. He was dropped from the side in the third Test against Australia played in March as Shubman Gill replaced him. He further had low returns from the bat in T20Is in 2022, scoring 434 runs in 16 innings at an average of 28.93 and at a below-par strike rate of 126.53. 

Notably, the Lucknow Super Giants captain did not get his IPL 2023 campaign off to a good start either, having scored only 28 runs from two innings so far. The 30-year-old always brings his ‘A game’ to the fore in the T20 extravaganza as he has scored 500-plus runs in every edition since 2018. The Lucknow franchise would hope for a similar performance from their captain this season as well.