Gautam Gambhir and Aakash Chopra, both from Delhi, have questioned the management strategy of making KL Rahul keep in the ODI format as well. A wicket-keeper KL Rahul in ODIs is not a good idea for the two and they fear that it might injure ‘precious-asset’ KL Rahul in the long-run.
While a players fitness has to do lot about how a player trains himself and also bit on his luck which can’t be predicted, KL Rahul’s stat are shouting out loud in his favour.
Gambhir and Chopra both agree on a point that KL Rahul is a top-order batsman who should not do the glove work in the 50-over format. Aakash Chopra adds that the wicket-keeping muscles of KL Rahul would not be able to take the workload. It is a fact that what he is talking is absolutely logical but Chopra talks about Rahul wicket-keeping and then opening the batting straightaway and not KL Rahul the middle-order batsman who scored 88 runs off 64 balls today for India.
KL Rahul has fared well in the middle-order. He has molded himself according to the situation after making comeback in the Indian squad. Rahul has scored 175 runs in three innings when asked to bat at the number five position. Rahul averages 87.50 at the position. The sample size must be small but for a batsman who has played at the top of the order for most of his life it is not easy.
Moreover, Pant, Samson have been wicket-keeper batsman for all their life and that should be strong a reason for them to not even give room for a chance Rahul has got. Cricket is a team sport and so for now it would not be bad to let versatile Rahul do all he wants to do and help team in whichever capacity he is capable of.
The move helped India play Manish Pandey in the T20Is and in the ODIs it is allowing the team to chip in an extra bowler or an all-rounder.
“I am not sure if it is a great idea to remove KL Rahul,” Gautam Gambhir told Times of India but how fair will it be to drop KL Rahul if Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma are both fit and in the form to play.
