India’s stand-in captain for the Zimbabwe series, KL Rahul, will return without much individual positives from the tour as he scores of 1 and 30 in the two chances he got to bat. And this is a slight concern ahead of the important Asia Cup 2022 starting August 27 in the UAE.
In the first ODI on Thursday, no Indian batsman other than the two openers got to bat: Shikhar Dhawan and Shubman Gill chased down the target of 190 by themselves; KL Rahul was slotted in to bat at number 4.
KL Rahul fails to gets back to form
In desperate and much-need of some game time, KL Rahul then opened in the second and the third ODIs, pushing Gill at number 3.
However, Rahul could was dismissed for 1 run in 5 balls on Saturday, dismissed by seamer Victor Nyauchi in the second over of India’s innings. And then on Monday, he was cautious in his approach, playing most of his shots painstakingly to ensure he gets as much time as possible in the middle – without hurting the team’s cause.
Rahul was slow though, even against the Zimbabwe bowlers: KLR scored 30 runs off 46 balls; he stroked only one four and one six, both coming after the 10th over.
Rahul is coming back from a two-month-long injury layoff – he didn’t play any game between the IPL 2022 and this tour – but his return hasn’t been ideal for Rahul and for Team India ahead of the Asia Cup 2022, where he is expected to open alongside Rohit Sharma.
Fans were really surprised and upset and disappointed in the way extremely careful manner KL Rahul was batting today. Netizens vented out on Twitter, expressing their frustrations with KL Rahul’s approach today knowing that the batsman is too good to be batting in such a manner.
Here are some of the tweets trolling Rahul:
https://twitter.com/PresidentMisbah/status/1561629782441431041
KL Rahul dismissed for 30 in 46 balls. Opening stand of 63 between him and Shikhar Dhawan ends.
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) August 22, 2022
KL Rahul before coming in to bat today pic.twitter.com/qkxe1lgzi0
— ° (@anubhav__tweets) August 22, 2022
For an aesthetic batter than KL Rahul is, surprisingly his cut shots aren’t that pleasant to watch.
— Ricky talks Cricket (@CricRicky) August 22, 2022
KL Rahul at the end of powerplay: 12*(25), 0 boundaries. 16 dot balls.
— 12th Khiladi (@12th_khiladi) August 22, 2022
Rusty is the word for KL Rahul. Will go into the Asia Cup match against Pakistan in less than a week’s time with not much time in the middle.
— CricBlog
(@cric_blog) August 22, 2022
(@cric_blog) Naseem Shah gonna end KL Rahul’s intl career next week.
— AZ (@azkhawaja1) August 21, 2022
KL Rahul dismissed for 30 from 46 Balls
Fans
— MOHIT SHUKLA (@MohitShukla1030) August 22, 2022
Geoffrey boycott said “KL Rahul is a perfect ambassador for test cricket in every format like Babar Azam”
— Pushkar (@musafir_hu_yar) August 22, 2022
India will struggle in Asia Cup with KL Rahul as opener. He shouldn’t be in the playing 11.
— Karan (@karannpatelll) August 22, 2022
KL Rahul demoted The in-inform batter Shubman Gill and promoted himself as an opener just to statpad as always pic.twitter.com/NTFnrK8fns
— A N K I T (@Ankitaker) August 22, 2022
Shubman gill is looking far better than kl rahul
— Ronak Dev (@Ronak_Dev18) August 22, 2022
KL Rahul needs to get back in form ahead of Asia Cup 2022
Rahul had suffered a groin injury ahead of the South Africa T20Is soon after the IPL 2022. He missed the South Africa series and the England tour. After the successful completion of an operation in Germany, he went to the NCA. However, there he contracted with covid-19 and missed the West Indies tour.
KL Rahul had another highly rewarding IPL season – leading the Lucknow Super Giants, the right-hander finished as the second-highest run-getter in IPL 2022, aggregating 616 runs, but his strike rate of 135 drew plenty of criticism.
