Delhi Capitals assistant coach Matthew Mott feels that KL Rahul has the ability to bat anywhere in the lineup for the team ahead of their clash against RCB on April 10. Rahul has batted at No.4 and then opened the batting for DC in their win against CSK.
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00:00Yeah, look, I think the role that Jake plays in every side he's in, it's high risk, but
00:06when he has his days out is what is the gold, and I think if for him a great tournament
00:12will look like influencing and winning three or four games, and there's a lot of games
00:16to go, but he's got full autonomy from all of our leadership, Axe in particular has doubled
00:23down on him just playing the way he plays and really taking the game on from ball one,
00:28a lot similar to what you'll see from the likes of Phil Salt and people like that, so when
00:33you play that high tempo game, it's obviously high risk as well, but he does some things
00:40that not many players in the world can do, and we look forward to him playing on a great
00:44surface out here, it's known for being a great batting surface as well, so I'm sure he's
00:50really looking forward to his next opportunity.
00:53We saw that Faf2 Plus he didn't play in the previous match, could you give us an update
00:57about his fitness and is he available for tomorrow's match?
01:01Good question, I'm not a physio, but obviously he missed the last game, you know, the beauty
01:08of the schedule so far for us, we've had some really good breaks and he's now had a good
01:12break, I think he'll get assessed today by the physios with a view to playing, he certainly
01:18looks like he's moving around a lot better from the naked eye without having a good look
01:22at him, but he's a key player for us, but what it did show is, you know, the depth that
01:27we've got and players' ability to adapt and come in there, I thought KL in the last game
01:31was amazing to come in at short notice and play in innings like that to really set us
01:36up for the win, so if he's available or not, you know, I think we can adapt.
01:41Sorry, just to follow up, can you explain the nature of the injury?
01:45Somewhere in the groin area, as I said, I'm not a physio, so, sorry.
01:50Matt, you just spoke about the depth and KL coming at the top of the tree, so is that
01:57like a dilemma for you that on the one hand you have KL who likes to bat at the top of
02:01the order and his scoring runs and you have a Fraser McGuck who's not delivering and you
02:05have Tuplessis who might be in the mix, so how do you balance that?
02:08Yeah, look, I think if you asked any batter they'd want to open, I think it's the best time
02:12to bat with the ball new, but, you know, in any team you look at what's the best for the
02:19team and you ask your batting group, how's the best way for us to slice this up, I think
02:24we've got a number of guys who can go in and open, but I do think that what separates KL
02:30from a lot of people in the group is his ability to bat anywhere, he's a class player, he showed
02:34that the other day, so yeah, we'll just keep, obviously as a group we'll assess all the way
02:39through, but, you know, we knew coming into this tournament that someone like Jake is not
02:44going to be the player that, you know, gets consistent runs, he's going to be a player
02:48who busts matches open and we're prepared with the depth that we've got to play like
02:53that. One of the things we have spoken a lot about in this group is the trend of teams
02:58being able to score quickly after losing wickets and I think that you can see the nature of
03:02that. The way teams used to look at was having set batters at the back end, I think what's
03:09been shown a lot is the ability for impact players to come in at the back end and change
03:15games with high strike rates.
03:17Hi Matthew, Aksar Bol just won over in the previous game, was that more of a tactical call
03:24or are there any injury concerns there?
03:27No, I think he, yeah, we were probably a little surprised ourselves that he didn't bowl more
03:31but he felt like the other bowlers were doing really well, I think someone like Vipraj has
03:37come in and been a sensation for us and probably took some overs where Aksar might have bowled
03:41there. But I think, yeah, given his experience and time, I felt he had control of the game
03:47and, you know, some of the bowlers got the opportunity but I think in the matches coming
03:52forward you'll see him bowl a lot more.
03:55Matthew, three wins in three so it looks great, I mean, when things are going great.
03:59Can you just give us, you know, a take on Aksar, the captain, what's he like behind the scenes
04:05at training with the youngsters, the Indian players, foreign stars?
04:09Yeah, good question. I think he's been amazing. Obviously I didn't have a lot to do with him
04:13before this tournament. I found him, he's just got a great balance on cricket and life.
04:18A lot of the times, yeah, he'll just summarise the group and make sure that players are included,
04:24they're having fun and they've got a smile on their face. He talks a lot about that. I think
04:28he's played enough cricket now to know that it can be a pretty fickle game at times and
04:33we're well aware that when you're winning it's all rosy and it's all good. But I like
04:37to think that he's got that character where if we do have a bad day he'll be just as positive
04:43and the messages will be very similar. I think he also leverages off a lot of the other senior
04:48players in the group and the coaches. So he's not taken it all on himself and I think
04:53he's got some fantastic people around him. We mentioned KL, FAF as well. So you've got
04:58a lot of experience to draw on, particularly at this venue. FAF with his experiences here
05:04so we had a really productive meeting around that and he doesn't come across that he wants
05:09to be the only voice. He wants to leverage off others and make sure he's getting the best
05:13out of the people around him.