India vice-captain Kannanur Lokesh Rahul alias KL Rahul is facing a barrage of trolls and abusive comments after he failed in the T20 World Cup semi-final against England on Thursday. KL Rahul once again failed in a big match as he could only score 5 runs in as many deliveries before being dismissed by Chris Woakes in the second over of India's innings. His early wicket put Team India under immense pressure as they failed to get any kind of momentum early on in their innings. Though Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya's half-centuries took them to 168/6, Rohit Sharma and his boys were still given a hammering by England as the Three Lions went on to secure an emphatic 10-wicket victory. The fans, meanwhile, singled out Kannanur Lokesh Rahul for the humiliating loss and took to Twitter to not only troll or mock him but to abuse him as well.

https://twitter.com/mahavee87288520/status/1590653302903279616

 

Like everyone else, former India speedster Irfan Pathan was critical of Kannanur Lokesh Rahul, saying that the opening batter should have shown more aggression at the top.

“He started badly. After that, when he scored two half-centuries, they definitely came against teams where you expect runs, I felt another half-century was about to come, the form is about to come. But this has been a problem with KL Rahul for a long time,” Irfan Pathan told Star Sports.

“When you watch him bat, you feel he is technically fantastic, but I feel when it comes to being tough on the mental front, he doesn't back himself there. We have spoken about his strike rate earlier,” the former India fast bowler added.

“When he comes back from injury, his initial movement is probably late. Here also both his feet were in the air. If he wanted, he could have given himself room and played the cut shot. He has all the ability against both pace and spin but if you are slightly soft at the top, it makes a huge impact on your cricket,” Irfan Pathan explained.

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While batting great Virender Sehwag didn't directly blame Kannanur Lokesh Rahul for India's loss but highlighted how the side's top-order failed to score runs upfront.

“If the top order has batted 12 overs to just score 82 runs (77), then expecting the rest of the batters to come in and play fearless cricket and score 100 runs in eight overs, that is also not right. Yes, the average total of this ground may be 150-160 and you made more than that. But then on the day itself, if one batter gets set on that pitch, the average total stops mattering. We have seen this happening a number of times here at the Wankhede or the Feroz Shah Kotla or in Chennai. Today's game could not have been won with scores of 150-160,” Virender Sehwag said on Cricbuzz.

“New Zealand played a certain way against Australia (in their first match) but they didn't do that again in the semi-final and they got knocked out. If India feel that they made an above par total and so it is bowling's fault, I don't agree with that. We lost the match in the first 10 overs when our batters did not give the kind of start that we were hoping for,” Virender Sehwag pointed out.

Virender Sehwag's scathing take on India's failure to end their drought in ICC events came after skipper Rohit Sharma squarely blamed his bowlers for the loss.

India's long wait for a major trophy extended to nine years following their annihilation by England in Adelaide. The Men in Blue last lifted the ICC Champions Trophy title in 2013 under the leadership of the legendary MS Dhoni.

“It's pretty disappointing how we turned up today. I thought we still batted pretty well at the back end to get to that score, but we were not good enough with the ball. It was definitely not a wicket where a team can come and chase it down in 16 overs. With the ball we didn't turn up today,” Rohit Sharma said after the loss.

“When it comes to knockout stages, it's all about handling the pressure. Depends on the individual as well. You can't teach anyone to handle pressure. When these guys play the playoffs in the IPL and all that, those are high-pressure games, and they're able to handle it. The way we started with the ball was not ideal. We were a little nervy, but you have to give credit to the openers as well. They played really well,” the 35-year-old stated.

“When Bhuvi bowled the first over it swung today, but not from the right areas. We wanted to keep it tight, not give room, because square of the wicket was an area, we were aware of – that's where the runs came today. If we keep it tight and the batsman still score runs, we'll take it. But we didn't do that today. In the game against Bangladesh, it was tricky as well, but I thought we held our nerve that day, executed well,” the India captain concluded.