Former Indian opener Kris Srikkanth has showered praise on KL Rahul after the second ODI against New Zealand. Rahul scored a brilliant knock of 112 runs off 92 balls with the help of 11 fours and one six at a strike rate of 121.74 while batting at number five.
India were in a spot of bother at 118-4 on a slow pitch however, Rahul played an impressive knock for the home team. Rahul added 73 runs with Ravindra Jadeja, whereas he added 57 runs with Nitish Kumar Reddy to help India post a fighting total of 284 runs on the board. But Rahul’s efforts went in vain as India suffered a seven-wicket loss.
“The man for crisis, India in trouble, Classy Rolls Royce Rahul, he is the only man. India goes to Rahul. In Tests, he scores and wins games; in ODIs, he scores and wins games; he scored in the Champions Trophy as well, he scores everywhere. He is a next-level cricketer. He scores at 4,5,6,7, everywhere. After Shubman and Virat got out, there was no one else in the middle order for India. After Nitish got out, he batted with Harshit and Siraj and got to his 100 as well. No one else scored at the backend,” Kris Srikkanth said on his YouTube channel ‘Cheeky Cheeka’.
Srikkanth wants Rahul to bat ahead of Ravindra Jadeja in ODI format.
“I have been saying this for a long time. Nobody listens. Promote him ahead of Jadeja. What more do you want?”
On the other hand, Indian skipper Shubman Gill scored 56 runs off 53 balls in the second ODI and Srikkanth praised the opener for his impressive knock.
“The number of cuts he played today was outstanding. In fact, whenever the New Zealand bowlers erred in length outside the off-stump, Gill was very strong in punishing them. He was brilliant. His ODI record is terrific. Gill has kind of mastered this format and you can see the records,” he said.
The third ODI between India and New Zealand will be played at Indore on Sunday.
