It was KL Rahul who came out for the toss duties on Thursday in India’s last Super 4 game in the Asia Cup 2022 – against Afghanistan in Dubai. 30-year-old KL Rahul, who is the designated vice-captain of the team, led the Men In Blue against Mohammad Nabi’s unit.
This left many wondering whether India’s regular skipper Rohit Sharma has again gotten injured! However, and thankfully, that’s not the reason that Sharma missed Thursday’s encounter.
After Afghanistan skipper Mohammad Nabi won the toss and chose to field first, KL Rahul got the chance to speak with toss host Ravi Shastri. There KL Rahul revealed that Rohit Sharma has only been rested given the workload the Indian skipper has had and also that the weather conditions taking a toll on Sharma after his long innings against Sri Lanka on Tuesday.
India made three changes to their eleven
In the previous game, against Sri Lanka, Rohit scored 72 runs off 41 balls, spending 70 minutes in the middle in the heat of Dubai. So, perhaps that’s another reason to rest him from a dead rubber.
Chiefly since this is a dead rubber – with India already knocked out of the race for the Asia Cup 2022 final – India decided to rest not only Rohit Sharma, but along with him all-rounder Hardik Pandya and leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal were also rested, providing an opportunity to give more game time to the benched players.
Replacing the trio came in Deepak Chahar, Axar Patel and Dinesh Karthik. This is the first match of the Asia Cup 2022 for Chahar and Axar, the pair who were in the reserves and then replaced Avesh Khan and Ravindra Jadeja, respectively, in the squad after the duo was ruled out because of illness and injury respectively.
Fans slam Rohit Sharma for taking a rest from the Afghanistan game:
“Rohit wants to take a break, playing back-to-back is not easy in these conditions,” KL Rahul said about Rohit being rested. This is a dead rubber: both India and Afghanistan were eliminated after Pakistan and Sri Lanka qualified for the final with Pakistan’s win in Sharjah over Afghanistan on Wednesday.
A number of Indian fans were unhappy and upset with Rohit Sharma, the skipper of the team, taking a rest from the match against Afghanistan.
Here are some of the reactions of fans on this matter:
IPLVEER Plays all games in ipl back to back but can’t play all games for India 🇮🇳 #RohitSharma #INDvsAFG @mohsinaliisb @vikrantgupta73 @cricketaakash #AppleEvent
— The Penman 🇮🇳 (@hemant__yadav) September 8, 2022
Why is he rested? what was the need? Idk what the man is upto
— N. (@ItsNidhi5) September 8, 2022
Biggest joke is we expected #KLRahul will be dropped from team today but he’s captaining today 🤣🤣🤣😜😂😂😂
What else you need to proof that #RahulDravid and #RohitSharma jokers#INDvsAFG
— Prasad (@itsme_PRASADG) September 8, 2022
So Rohit Sharma not playing today, I reckon he has left early for the airport to get a window seat. 😂😂😂#INDvsAFG
— Taha 🇵🇰| Kirkut Experts Stan | (@taha_tj30) September 8, 2022
As I said, rest is all they need during international matches. During IPL there is no affect of heat, humidity etc. This time it’s #RohitSharma https://t.co/RyUdBKsryb pic.twitter.com/sqBJ8FqiEy
— Chandan 🇮🇳 (@CKSahay_) September 8, 2022
