KL Rahul, who is touted as the future of the Indian team across all three formats of the game, has been struggling with his form in red-ball cricket, raising questions about his place in the team. The 30-year-old was even dropped from the playing XI in the third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in favour of Shubman Gill. Many former cricketers have shared their opinions on Rahul’s dismal run in international cricket, and now former India opener Gautam Gambhir has opened up about the batter’s downfall.
Speaking on Sports Tak, Gambhir, who is also the mentor of Lucknow Super Giants IPL team, stated that getting dropped from the Indian T20I and Test sides should “hurt” KL Rahul, and suggested that it will be good for the batter in the long run. “These things happen to every cricketer. Name one cricketer who has scored runs with the same consistency from the start to the end. And these things are good for you. These things should hurt you. If it has hurt him, then it is a great thing for us. When you see someone else play and you are running around as a 12th man with water bottles, it should hurt you,” Gambhir said.
Gambhir believes that the upcoming season of the IPL is an opportunity for Rahul to find his form. “You have scored four-five hundreds in the Indian Premier League. But if you are not in the T20 side and not in the playing XI of the Test side, then you can look at IPL as an isolated tournament or look at it as an opportunity to reinvent yourself. Can I bat the way the team wants me to and score the way the entire nation expects of me? Scoring more than 600 runs in an IPL season is not important. Score 400 but those should impact your team’s performance,” Gambhir added.
Furthermore, Rahul has even lost the vice-captaincy in Test cricket. In the absence of Rishabh Pant, Rahul has been roped in as a wicketkeeper-batter in ODIs. It remains to be seen how Rahul fares in the three-match ODI series against Australia starting March 17.
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