Veteran batter Dinesh Karthik has issued a stern warning to stand-in captain KL Rahul that his days in Team India are numbered following the latter's disastrous outing during the recent Bangladesh tour.
Declaring KL Rahul could face the axe in the Test series against Australia if he doesn't resurrect his form soon, Dinesh Karthik insisted that the Karnataka batter needs to quickly turn things around if he's to resurrect his career.
“Let's look at the recent past. Before these two Bangladesh Tests, three against South Africa, four against England that he played. In those 7 Tests, he's got two centuries and two fifties and those are in away conditions. These are tough conditions to play in, so as a support staff of the Indian team, when you look at him, you know he's got the skill. He's not going through the best of times at this point, and you got to back him,” Dinesh Karthik said on Cricbuzz.
“He's the captain of the Indian team and you can't let go of him easy. I think, he will definitely start the Australian series, and if things don't go well there, that is where the questions will start to arise in a much bigger manner,” the veteran India wicketkeeper added.
“Look, I think we have to understand mindsets of batters. Right now, there's a lot happening in his mind. He's the captain, he hasn't got the volume of runs he wants. He is under pressure, he is tentative when he starts to bat. This happens to a lot of batters, literally every batter who plays for the country. You go through spell where you find the runs hard to come by,” Dinesh Karthik explained.
“It could be the new ball, you feel the conditions are made for batting, sometimes you don't get to runs and everyday the mind keeps throwing doubts at you and it gets bigger and bigger. In his case, he's tentative, he's not very comitted to the front foot. He's hanging back, hoping that the ball would turn and he could play the ball. But at times, he is trying to make an effort to play. It's not a technical error, there's a lot happening for KL Rahul at the moment,” Dinesh Karthik noted.
KL Rahul has faced severe flak from both Team India supporters and former cricketers for his inability to score runs across all three formats.
While it was his batting approach at the top of the order that was heavily criticized during India's failed T20 World Cup campaign in Australia last month, his struggles in the recent ODIs against Bangladesh once again raised questions about his place in the national team.
In the Test series against Bangladesh, KL Rahul could only manage scores of 22, 23 10, and 2 in the four knocks he played in Chattogram and Dhaka.
Earlier reports emerged that KL Rahul would also be dropped from India's T20I side for the upcoming series against Sri Lanka next month.
“The old committee will probably select the Sri Lanka white ball squad,” a BCCI official told the news agency PTI. “As of now, it doesn’t look like Rohit Sharma’s finger will heal enough before the T20Is and in that case, Hardik will lead the side. As far as KL Rahul is concerned, his T20I days seem to be numbered.”
“Chetan and his committee are still watching domestic cricket. They watched the full Vijay Hazare Trophy and also the first two rounds of Ranji Trophy. Debasish Mohanty was present at Eden Gardens to watch Bengal vs Himachal Pradesh. Basically, they got a two-month extension till December 25,” the BCCI source added.
All these developments come at a time when Indian cricket fans have been slamming him for his lackluster show in the past few months.
While some labeled him a “fraud”, others mocked him by claiming that he has now promised his vow of scoring runs against weak opposition and that's why he didn't perform well against Bangladesh.
“Thank you KL Rahul for your memories. Happy retirement. Now never come back in our team. No one cares about you and no requirement of a dead player like you. Go and play IPL and earn money because you never earn our respect,” a fuming Indian cricket admirer claimed.
“KL Rahul is a fraud but BCCI management/selectors are bigger frauds. They're not only allowing him to be in the final-।। but also gave him captainship. 2 minutes silence for those who are expecting a world cup from this team,” another wrote.
“People used to criticize KL Rahul for scoring runs against only weak teams. He gave a befitting reply to all of them by not scoring runs even against Bangladesh,” a third declared.
“Kl Rahul not even crossed the score of 25 in his last 7 test innings and he is our vice-captain in all formats,” a fourth summed up.
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