Being aggressive, sometimes you take wrong decisions: Rahul Singh

Batting on 114, Hyderabad captain Rahul Singh perished off the first ball he faced on Sunday as he attempted to clear the midwicket boundary, and was understandably disappointed. However, the 30-year-old left-hander embraced the dismissal as a by-product of his natural game.

“I play attacking cricket. In the Ranji Trophy also, my strike rate is around 70. That is the kind of player I am. It also comes with challenges, which you saw today. Being an attacking batter means sometimes you take wrong decisions,” he told The Hindu after the day’s play.

Rahul is a rare all-format batter in the era of specialisation. He averages a respectable 45.11 in red-ball cricket and boasts a strike rate of 93.24 and 137.81 in List A and T20s, respectively.

But it takes all sorts to make a team. On Sunday, Hyderabad also required the services of Rahul’s namesake and antithesis, the 22-year-old Rahul Radesh, an emerging red-ball specialist who compiled a patient 161-ball 81.

“He knows what his strengths are, so he plays to his limitations. He knows his role very well; it is to keep rotating the strike from one end and keep playing as long as possible,” the skipper said about the gritty wicketkeeper-batter.