Former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar lambasted Delhi Capitals’ KL Rahul for his subpar batting in his team’s defeat to Chennai Super Kings on Tuesday, May 5.
Even though Delhi had won the toss and chosen to bat first, Rahul and his opening partner Pathum Nissanka were nowhere near their aggressive best, and that ultimately cost DC. Manjrekar criticised Rahul for making just 12 runs in 13 balls.
DC lose to CSK at home
Even though the game was actually in Delhi, it might as well have been misconstrued to be Chepauk with the way Akeal Hosein and Noor Ahmad got to turn the ball. Twice in two home games, Delhi failed to get a start in the power play and lost too many wickets up top.
They were 69/5 in the eleventh over and had to bring Sameer Rizvi in to save the collapse. Rizvi did his job, mostly, with an unbeaten 40 that took DC to a fighting 156. In reply, Sanju Samson bided his time and waited for the right moment to attack. His unbeaten 87 and Kartik Sharma’s unbeaten 41 ensured an eight-wicket win for CSK.
You’ve basically signed the death warrant for your team- Sanjay Manjrekar critiques KL Rahul
In a video posted to his official Instagram page, Manjrekar talked about Delhi Capitals’ poor show not just in this match, but the season in general.
“It’s almost like odd and even games, where sometimes he goes after the bowling straightaway, which is the KL Rahul you want. But then he feels like he has earned the right, and he feels responsible for the rest of the batters to come, and then plays an innings like that. Once you get out after getting to 12 off 12, you’ve signed the death warrant for your team. Once they had those insipid first six overs, DC were done for the game,” he said.
You can’t start slow and hope to explode later- Sanjay Manjrekar
Manjrekar also criticised KL Rahul’s approach of starting slow in hopes that the opportunity to explode later would arrive. He said that in the era where 200 was a typical strike rate in the power play for an opener, Rahul was stuck at half of that, and that wasn’t doing anyone any favours.
“KL Rahul, after playing a brilliant innings the match prior, got 12 off 12 balls in the first six overs. That’s two overs going at a strike rate of 100. When you have openers going at 200, you can’t be having an opener getting 12 off 12 in the hope that he’ll explode later,” he added.
In the same video, Manjrekar criticised DC skipper Axar Patel’s decision to promote himself up the batting order again and again, saying that the likes of David Miller, Ashutosh Sharma and Sameer Rizvi should not be batting after Patel.
KL Rahul’s form in IPL 2026
Although Rahul had a rough night against CSK, his overall numbers in this year’s IPL are still good. He is currently the Orange Cap holder, but may soon lose it since second place is just five runs behind.
Overall, Rahul has 445 runs in 10 matches at an average of 49.44 and a strike rate of 180.89 with 1 century and 3 fifties.
