New Delhi. Former bowler Venkatesh Prasad once again made a series of tweets on out-of-form batsman KL Rahul and claimed that there is discrimination in selection. A few days back, Prasad had alleged bias in Rahul’s selection in the playing XI. After KL Rahul was dismissed for 17 in the first innings of the Delhi Test against Australia, Prasad took to Twitter to criticize the opener. Rahul was clearly struggling in the first hour of the day and Australia twice challenged the on-field umpire’s call. Even though he lost his review, it put pressure on the batsman and he was trapped in front of the stumps. The vice-captain decided to challenge the on-field umpire’s decision, but was dismissed. With this, India also lost one of its reviews.
Venkatesh Prasad made several tweets one after the other regarding KL Rahul’s poor performance and his selection in the playing XI. He wrote, “And the poor performance continues. This is the lack of management, which remains with such a player, who is constantly playing poorly. No other top-order batsman has played so many Tests with such a low average in at least the last 20 years of Indian cricket.
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He further wrote, “His joining the team shakes faith in justice. SS Das had a lot of potential and so did S Ramesh… both averaged 38+ but could not go beyond 23 Test matches. Rahul’s continuous inclusion in the team gives the impression of lack of batting talent in India, which is not true. His average in 47 innings in the last 5 years is below 27.
Prasad further wrote, “No one was given a chance like KL. Obviously this discrimination will not be encouraging for any player. KL had a lot of potential, but he didn’t deliver. He didn’t deserve it, yet he was constantly given chances. Now if he plays well then the next innings can be sealed for 2 years. According to me, he is currently not among the 10 best openers in India currently, but he is being given endless opportunities. Players like Kuldeep Yadav performed ‘man of the match’ and were not selected in the next match. It is sad.
Prasad tweeted, “When top form players are waiting. Shubman Gill is in great form, Sarfaraz Khan is scoring a century in first class cricket and there are many who deserve a chance ahead of Rahul. Some are lucky enough to be given endless chances to succeed while some are not allowed to. And to make matters worse, Rahul is the designated vice-captain. Ashwin has got great cricketing mind, he should be vice-captain in test format. If it should not be Pujara or Jadeja. Mayank Agarwal had a far better impact than Rahul in Tests and so did Vihari. Rahul was not selected on the basis of performance but on the basis of favoritism. Has been consistently inconsistent and hasn’t converted potential into performance for someone who’s been around for 8 years.
Prasad wrote in another tweet, “Despite seeing such bias, many former cricketers do not speak on such issues. Is there a possibility of his own withdrawal from the IPL? He would not like to criticize the captain of any franchise, because in today’s era most people are going to say yes and do not like to speak the truth.
Please tell that Rahul has scored 50, 8, 12, 10, 22, 23, 10, 2, 20 and 17 runs in Test matches played since 2022 and the pressure on him to score runs is increasing. He has one more innings to prove himself. If he fails in the second innings, Rahul may have to be dropped from the playing XI, as the in-form Shubman Gill is in excellent form.
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Tags: Border Gavaskar Trophy, India vs Australia, KL Rahul, Venkatesh Prasad
FIRST PUBLISHED : February 18, 2023, 19:32 IST