Moody: KL Rahul 'a lot better player than a lot of people give him credit for'

It's tough to be KL Rahul sometimes.

Over the years, he has faced criticism for his strike rate in T20 cricket and it was once again a talking point when he scored an unbeaten 112 off 65 balls in a losing cause against Gujarat Titans (GT) on Sunday. Despite a slow start from Delhi Capitals (DC), where they scored just 28 for 1 in the first five overs, Rahul ensured the team almost had 200. But it wasn't enough as B Sai Sudharsan and Shubman Gill chased down the target with ease and took GT to the playoffs.

Rahul scored his century in 60 balls on Sunday, and his 112 not out came at a strike rate of 172.30. He has been striking at 148.04 in IPL 2025, having accumulated 493 runs in 12 innings. In terms of his strike rate, he hasn't done better since IPL 2018, when he went at 158.41 in scoring 659 in 14 matches.

The criticism hasn't gone down well with Tom Moody.

"I always find the criticism around KL Rahul quite extraordinary," Moody said on ESPNcricinfo's Time Out. "I think he's a lot better player than a lot of people give him credit for. And the way I look at this innings, I think it's an outstanding innings. And yeah, look, it'll depend who wins the game to whether he's, you know, the Player of the Match or not. But the way I look at this and I look at the batting card, what's let them down and not reaching that 220 is the other batters that were in only struck at 150. On a [batting-friendly] surface, you want impact.

"When you've got someone in there that's anchoring, that's building the total, your role when you come in is to impact the game - 30 off ten balls, those types of innings, that suddenly take you to that 220. Instead of pointing the finger at the same person, I think it's the other way around."

At the end of ten overs, DC were 81 for 1 with Rahul on 56 off 38 balls. However, between 15 and 18, Rahul faced a total of only six balls with Axar Patel and Tristan Stubbs at the other end facing more of the bowling. This, Moody felt, made him lose a bit of momentum.

"The team had the opportunity to get it to 220. The team didn't do that," Moody said. "This is not an individual sport. This is a team sport. And that's where the communication around who's coming in and the communication when you're out there: 'okay, we need to target two boundaries at the beginning of this over; let's make this a big over', that type of conversations.

"To me, they just lay idle a little bit in that middle [period]. And also, we've got to recognise KL Rahul, I believe, only faced four [six] balls in a period of four overs in the middle of that. So therefore, you know, he lost a bit of his rhythm as well."