KL Rahul was instructed to “be ready to keep wickets and bat in the middle-order” in upcoming ODIs by the Indian team management, led by Rahul Dravid, the Indian vice-captain revealed on Sunday. In 2021, Rahul occasionally held wickets and batted in the middle of the order. In the first ODI against Bangladesh, he also donned heavy gloves in addition to making 73 runs. After Rishabh Pant was advised to take a break from the ODI series by the medical staff, this happened.
Rahul missed an opportunity to catch Player of the Match Mehidy Hasan Miraj in the air, which would have given India a victory rather than their one-wicket loss. “We haven’t played a lot of ODIs in the last 8-9 months but if you look at 2020-21, I have kept wickets, and I have batted at Nos 4 and 5. This is the role that team has asked me to be ready for in white-ball cricket as I have done it before,” Rahul curtly replied when asked about Pant’s absence.
Rahul, who is a member of the team management because he is the vice-captain, did not make it clear whether Pant’s rest was due to workload management or a niggle. “When it comes to Rishabh, I am not sure, to be honest, just found out today that he is going to be released. What the reasons are, the medical team will be in a better situation to answer those questions.
Rahul didn’t feel that either batters or bowlers should be held responsible for this defeat. “That’s cricket, right You have to expect the unexpected. As long as cricket has been played, this kind of thing keeps happening. They fought very well till the end and a couple of dropped catches and that innings from Mehidy.” He was personally satisfied after scoring runs on a tricky wicket.
“One of those days where it looked like I was timing the ball better (than others). The shots I picked, fortunately, went to the boundary, every option that I picked went my way,” he said. “Such innings give you joy as a batter as you are challenged and you put your hand up when the team requires. Ideally, we should have got 40 runs more. I did fancy 230-240 if I batted till the end or even if I could have batted till 40th over.”
