Former India batter Aakash Chopra has questioned the team management over their utilisation of star wicketkeeper-batter KL Rahul in the first ODI against England on Thursday. Despite being preferred over Rishabh Pant in the playing XI, Rahul came out to bat at no. 6 as Axar Patel was promoted up the order in Nagpur. Although Rahul was dismissed for cheap by spinner Adil Rashid, Chopra feels that the veteran batter should've been allowed to bat at his usual form.
"What are we going to do with Rahul? It's an important talking point. It's slightly intriguing. Jacob Bethell and Adil Rashid were bowling. So you didn't send Rahul, okay fine, but you played Rahul ahead of Pant. However, are you going to show that much faith in Rahul? You haven't done that thus far because there were three matches in Sri Lanka, the first match got tied, you lost the second match, and you dropped him in the third match. Rishabh Pant played in the third match," Chopra said in a video on his YouTube channel.
Chopra also felt that India could have played both Rahul and Pant as Virat Kohli was not in the XI due to injury. He also pointed out Rahul's batting position keeps getting rotated, be it any format.
"There was an opportunity here to play both of them together. If you needed a left-hander, you could have sent Rishabh Pant first, and then KL Rahul could have followed. If a left-arm spinner or a leg-spinner comes, you will send Rahul too low in trying to maintain a left-right combination. KL Rahul was dropped the last time he played white-ball cricket, and he hasn't played white-ball cricket after that. He was dropped in Test cricket as well and then you made him open and after that, you sent him down the order. You should have allowed him to play now. You would have at least come to know whether he is in form or not," he added.
Recapping the match, Kohli missed the game due to a sore knee, and India handed debuts to Yashasvi Jaiswal and Harshit Rana.
Young all-rounder Jacob Bethell stood out with a composed 51 off 64 deliveries as England posted 248 after opting to bat.
Chasing 249, India rode of half-centuries from Shubman Gill (83), Shreyas Iyer (59) and Axar Patel (52) to achieve the target with 11.2 overs to spare.