IPL 2020: Feared I would get lazy, so I trained at home during lockdown, says KL Rahul

New Delhi, Aug 25: Kings XI Punjab's captain KL Rahul has revealed that the lack of training during the COVID-19 lockdown made him "anxious" thinking it would have a negative impact on his performance once cricket returned.

The India batsman before flying out to the UAE for the Indian Premier League 2020, the Karnataka batsman spoke about how the break had been somewhat of a double-edged sword for him, affording him time to rest and recuperate, but also causing anxiety over whether he could keep his skills sharp for when lockdown ended.

Rahul told the Indian Express, "I did get anxious sitting at home. My fear was that I would get lazy, so I trained at home during the day. I made a plan for a day and tried to stick to it. But initially, I didn't bother as I felt I deserved to be lazy and that I can wake up at whatever time I want to. Even if I didn't train, it was acceptable for me because my body needed that break after years."

The opening batsman also admitted to suffering sleepless nights as his mind raced with possibilities of losing his ability to bat through the prolonged break.

"Once or twice I did have sleepless nights thinking 'What if once I get back to playing cricket, I am not the same player?' That was a bit scary but luckily in Bengaluru, we got a few practice sessions and that made me feel good.

"Couple of nights, I had nightmares. I woke up with the feeling, 'What if I can't pick line and length of the ball? What if I become slower? What if I don't have the same cover drive as before?' All these question marks were there. And the first session didn't help: all those fears came true. I batted so badly in that session it was scary. But after three sessions, I started to feel better and it made me happy."