ICC Champions Trophy 2017: India’s young opening batsman KL Rahul has ruled out of ICC Champions Trophy 2017 due to injured shoulder. Rahul is one of the most exciting young batsmen in India and he impressed one and all with his impressive display of batting in the grand home season 2016/17. But now that he is injured, it will be interesting to see who will be selectors’ pick for the opening slot alongside Rohit Sharma, in ICC Champions Trophy 2017 in England.
According to a report published ABP News, Virat Kohli has talked about the replacement for the KL Rahul to the board. The Indian skipper wants Ajinkya Rahane to replace KL Rahul. Even though Gautam Gambhir and Shikhar Dhawan are in good form, Kohli wants selectors to pick Rahane for the opening slot.
If this report is true, it is hard to understand why Kohli wants to pick Rahane, who is in horrible form in the ongoing tenth season of Indian Premier League, ahead of Gautam Gambhir and Shikhar Dhawan, who have been in good run-scoring touch in IPL 2017.
The likes of Sourav Ganguly and Ravi Shastri have put their weight behind Gautam Gambhir for the opening slot.
“Gambhir deserves a place in the national team for the forthcoming Champions Trophy. He is in excellent touch,” india.com quoted Ganguly as saying. “I am truly elated to have watched Gambhir’s dedication even after playing the game for so many years. More importantly, KL Rahul is yet to regain fitness following injury. So, it will be high time for the selectors to think over Gambhir for the Champions Trophy,” Sourav Ganguly said.
“As a batsman, Gambhir has been unstoppable. Nobody has hit more boundaries or 50s. His cuts still thread past the pointcover region; his dabs still have third man diving desperately and raking up a laundry bill.That he hardly hits a six tells us about the options he still has at the crease. It’s been a task for bowlers to keep him pinned to one end,” Shastri wrote in his Times of India column.
