‘People are asking him to be dropped’ – Ex-Indian opener feels KL Rahul is scapegoated for India’s poor performances
Former Indian opener Aakash Chopra has backed KL Rahul to come good in the second Test against Bangladesh to be played in Mirpur from Thursday. Rahul, who’s also captaining the team in the series, scored 22 and 23 runs respectively in his two innings of the first Test which India won by 188 runs. With his opening partner Shubman Gill scoring his maiden Test century in the second innings, Rahul might have not found a place in the playing XI had Rohit Sharma been fit and available.
In a video uploaded on his Youtube Channel, Chopra spoke about his expectations from team India in the Mirpur Test.
“There is nothing much to see from India’s viewpoint. You want KL Rahul to score runs because he is an amazing player. It is not that he has become a bad player but the environment in Indian cricket at the moment is that they are blaming Rahul whenever anything goes wrong,” Chopra said.
Chopra further said that everyone seems to be rooting for the Karnataka opener to be dropped at the moment.
“They are asking when Rahul will get dropped. In India, when someone does well, we want the other one to be left out. We are so fickle-minded, we change our opinions so quickly. It seems at the moment that there is no player more ordinary than KL Rahul because that environment has gotten created,” the 45-year-old said.
Rahul has had a poor run with the bat in 2022. The 30-year-old has managed just 125 runs at a lowly average of 20.83 in the three Tests he has played this year.
Virat Kohli hasn’t scored too many runs in whatever he has played: Aakash Chopra
Chopra expects Cheteshwar Pujara and Shubman Gill to continue their good form in the Mirpur Test and also hopes that Virat Kohli to end his century drought.
“I am looking for first-innings runs from Shubman Gill because you will need runs there. Cheteshwar Pujara – once again, a similar style. Runs from Virat Kohli’s bat. We were saying that Cheteshwar has scored a century after so many years,” Chopra added.
“The truth is that Virat Kohli’s last century came in the pink-ball Test at the Eden Gardens against Bangladesh in 2019. After that, a Test century has not come. He hasn’t played too much cricket as well but hasn’t scored too many runs in whatever he has played. So you expect runs from his bat, that he also scores a century,” he concluded.
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