Former Indian all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin praised KL Rahul after the ODI series against the West Indies. Ashwin said Rahul sometimes gets the criticism he doesn’t deserve. Ashwin heaped praise on Rahul after his brilliant unbeaten 129 off just 87 balls against the West Indies in the final ODI in Mullanpur.
Rahul, playing his first innings of the series, played a crucial knock to help India post 351/7 after they were reduced to 28/2 inside the first 10 overs. He smashed nine fours and three sixes in his 87-ball innings but his knock went in vain as India suffered a five-wicket loss.
The wicketkeeper-batter also completed his ninth ODI century and crossed the 10,000-run mark in international cricket during his innings. He became the 15th Indian batter to reach the milestone.
“I feel sometimes he receives a lot of criticism for what he doesn’t deserve. He has the game to change gears. Sometimes the complaint is that he bats too slowly. But when you are playing in that batting order, you see how many times Dhoni came at five or six and would take the game deep till the end. It is because in that role, you can never play in one gear all the time. You have to keep changing and it is very complicated,” Ashwin said in a video on his YouTube channel.
The former CSK all-rounder said Rahul is ahead of players like Rishabh Pant, Dhruv Jurel and Ishan Kishan for the number five or six position.
“Why has KL chosen to play that role? I’ll put my money on this. Ishan Kishan, Rishabh Pant, Dhruv Jurel, all are there. But if any of these guys bat at five or six where KL does, it will take a lot of time for them to do what he is doing. He has got an all-rounded game. He can play spin, no problem with the short balls, beautiful inside out, runs well between the wickets, has great technique. He also has the power game. He took the bowling apart and the reason West Indies leaked 350 was him.”
Rahul has performed consistently while batting at number five for India.
