While it would be premature to suggest that India opener KL Rahul’s place in the eleven is under threat going into the next Super 12 round match against South Africa, it was clear that Rahul wasn’t in a good touch in the two games so far, against Pakistan and the Netherlands.
After showing great signs of form and intent in the warm-up match against Australia, all of it fizzled away as KL Rahul recorded scores of 4 and 9 in the two knocks in Super 12. He has looked tentative when the ball is on the stumps or in the channel outside off-stump. He chopped on against Naseem Shah before being trapped lbw by Paul van Meekeren.
Should India drop KL Rahul?
Even though KL Rahul, who is also the vice-captain, will hold onto his position for the South Africa game, there were questions raised by journalists when India batter Suryakumar Yadav came for the press conference.
Suryakumar tackled the query from the journalist in his own style. He laughed it off at first, before explaining that KL Rahul had returned from a long injury break, and that’s he’s a class player. Thus, there really isn’t a thought on the management’s mind to drop Rahul from the XI.
You can watch the video here:
This is a crucial game for South Africa than India. After their match against Zimbabwe was washed out, where they were within touching distance of a win, South Africa hammered Bangladesh by 104 runs. With a victory over India, South Africa will come close to a semi-final spot after Pakistan have lost two matches to India and Zimbabwe. India, on the other hand, sit comfortably as after the South Africa fixture, they meet Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.
India predicted XI vs South Africa:
KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma (c), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh
