'I just came and sat after the shower' - KL Rahul opens up on India's top-order collapse against Australia in candid chat with Virat Kohli

Team India kicked off their campaign on a positive note but the Australian bowlers made them sweat hard to gain two points. The visitors were restricted to 199 but while defending the total, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood gave them a cracking start. With Ishan Kishan, Rohit Sharma and Shreyas Iyer returning to the pavilion without opening their accounts, the scoreboard looked like a game of football at 2/3.

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The five-time champions silenced the Indian crowd, but KL Rahul and Virat Kohli poured water on the burning fire. Both took time to assess the conditions and once they did, there was no coming back for the Aussie bowlers. They kept the scoreboard ticking with singles, doubles and rare boundaries and put on a record partnership of 165 for the fourth wicket. The former Indian captain was dismissed on 85 off 116 balls, while Rahul, who sealed the game with a six, was stranded on 97* off 115 balls.

In a candid chat with Kohli a day after the thrilling encounter, the wicket-keeper batter said he never expected such a collapse within the first two overs. The 31-year-old also said that he thought Shreyas Iyer would bat at least two overs. 

"I never expected it. You do lose a couple of wickets when the ball is doing something. But not like that. It still takes four or five overs, not 1.5 or two overs. I just came and sat when I came out of the shower. When Ishan got out, I rushed to get taped and started wearing my pads. Then Rohit got out, Shreyas too. With Shreyas, I thought he would bat at least two overs. But he was out on the first or second ball," he added. 

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I planned to play the first ten overs like Test cricket: Rahul 

Notably, Rahul came out to bat after doing wicketkeeping for 50 overs in the first innings. He also spoke about his conversation with Kohli after the first half-century stand. "Tired I would not lie. The only chat after 50-70 runs of the partnership was, let us conserve our energy, let us not run the twos. Once we hit it in the gaps, our instincts took over and we started running. It was nice to start the WC with a win," Rahul said.

"I planned to play the first ten overs like Test cricket. I do open the batting. We have been in situations where the ball does something. So I told myself to be a bit conservative and kill Australia's momentum. You were content with knocking it around, but also showed intent and punished them when they got off the radar," he added.