'Let's settle this in April' - KL Rahul responds to James Neesham's 'on-field' banter

New Zealand came back with a bang in the ODI series against India after losing the T20I series 0-5. The hosts turned the tables around in the 50-over format to continue with their dominance over the Men in Blue and won it 3-0. India’s bowlers let them down yet again as KL Rahul’s brilliant 112 went in vain. India set the Black Caps a target of 297 which the latter overhauled with five wickets in hand.

However, during the third ODI in Mount Maunganui, something funny happened between James Neesham and Rahul and the fans could see its impact on social media later as well. The New Zealand all-rounder posted a picture on Twitter showing the mid-pitch banter between him and Rahul.

He captioned it: “Paper, scissors, rock?” to give the impression that they were playing the popular game. It happened when Neesham came on the way of the batsman while he was taking a single. In another tweet, he also advised Rahul to save some runs for the IPL.

KL Rahul to lead KXIP this IPL

Rahul later responded to Neesham’s tweet saying: “Let’s settle this in April”. It was in reference to the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 where both Rahul and Neesham will be representing the Kings XI Punjab (KXIP).

The Kiwi all-rounder was brought by the KXIP for INR 50 lakh and he will be playing in only his second IPL this year, after having played for the former Delhi Daredevils in 2014. Rahul, on the other hand, is set to captain the Punjab franchise after a couple of seasons of hitting runs for them.

Let’s settle this in April. See u in a bit 🤙🏾

— K L Rahul (@klrahul11) February 12, 2020

Rahul, who finished as the man of the series in the T20Is, ended up as India’s second-highest scorer (202) in the ODI series after Shreyas Iyer (217). He has, however, been overlooked for the two-Test series starting February 21. Neesham, on the other hand, had an ordinary ODI series with just 31 runs and two wickets in three games.

India will be playing a three-match ODI series with South Africa at home after the tour of New Zealand before the IPL season starts.