KL Rahul has emerged as the vital part of the Indian team in limited-overs cricket and his recent performances are nothing less than phenomenal. Despite being a top-order batsman, the right-handed batsman proved his mettle in the middle-order and has also become India’s first-choice wicket-keeper in ODIs and T20Is. However, In spite of being a batsman with such prowess, Rahul admitted that he’s still a big fan of Rohit Sharma and he even gets ‘dumbstruck’ while seeing the talismanic batsman in action. KL Rahul Names his All-Time Favourite Batsman of All Time and its Not Virat Kohli.

In an interaction with India Today, the Hitman claimed that Rahul is team management’s first-choice opener in T20Is while he and Shikhar are fighting for the second spot.

Rahul was certainly overwhelmed by Rohit’s statement and he even went on to say that he still gets mesmerized while seeing the Mumbai-born cricketer bat. "Humbled by Rohit's words.

I have been a huge fan of his batting and I have played with him for a few years now but he is someone who is in the team, how do I say, like some cricketers get dumbstruck after watching Sachin Tendulkar, they don't know what to say. When I am with Rohit off the field I have still not been able to get through,” said the 28-year-old as quoted by India Today.

With Shikhar Dhawan missing a lot of matches due to injury in the year gone by, Rahul has opened with Rohit on many occasions and the two have certainly given a tough time to the bowlers. However, the Kings XI Punjab captain said that it was Rohit only who boosted his confidence.

“But he is someone in the team who has given me that sense that he has a lot of faith in me and as a senior player I have seen that he has backed me and stood by me on a lot of instances. When senior players feel like there is a guy who can take responsibility and can be amongst one of the senior players that give a young player or a player who has not played consistently for the country a lot of confidence,” Rahul opined.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 16, 2020 01:23 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).