"Environment In Indian Cricket At Moment Is...": Ex-India Player Backs KL Rahul Amidst Criticism

Team India registered a 188-run victory over Bangladesh in the first Test of the two-match series in Chattogram. Shubman Gill smashed his maiden Test ton while Cheteshwar Pujara brought up his century after a hiatus of three years, as India posted a target of 513 runs. In return, Bangladesh were bundled out at 324, with Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav scalping four and three wickets respectively. In the absence of their regular skipper Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul led Team India in the match but failed to shine with the bat. In the two innings, the opening batter scored only 22 and 23 runs.

Rahul, who has been facing harsh criticism for his lean patch, was backed by former India batter Aakash Chopra, who stated that people are "fickle minded" as they want the Karnataka batter to get dropped just because some other player is doing well.

“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. 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," said Chopra on his YouTube channel.

Regarding the ongoing second Test against Bangladesh, Chopra stated that Shubman Gill and Cheteshwar Pujara need to maintain their batting form in Dhaka and star batter Virat Kohli should rise to the occasion and smash a ton.

“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. 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," stated Chopra.

Talking about the second Test, India were 19 for no loss in their first innings at stumps on the opening day of the second Test against Bangladesh here on Thursday.

Shubman Gill and skipper KL Rahul were batting on 14 and 3 respectively as India negotiated eight overs in the final session of the day.

India had earlier bowled out Bangladesh for 227 in their first innings. Mominul Haque top-scored for Bangladesh, who opted to bat, with a 157-ball 84.

Umesh Yadav (4/25) and Ravichandran Ashwin (4/71) picked up eight wickets between them, while comeback seamer Jaydev Unadkat (2/50) grabbed the remaining two as India bundled out Bangladesh in 73.5 overs.

With PTI Inputs

Topics mentioned in this article

India Cricket Team Bangladesh Cricket Team KL Rahul Aakash Chopra Umesh Yadav Ravichandran Ashwin Bangladesh vs India, 2022/23 Cricket