India’s former batting legend Sunil Gavaskar has questioned KL Rahul’s captaincy and stated that it looked like he had run out of ideas in the first ODI against South Africa at Boland Park, Paarl on Wednesday.
This was the first time when KL Rahul was leading the team in an ODI and he didn’t look full of confidence.
In fact, Rahul had also led India in the second Test match against South Africa at the Wanderers, Johannesburg but India went on to lose that game by seven wickets.
Furthermore, KL Rahul had led Punjab Kings in the last two seasons in the IPL but the franchise failed to even make it to the playoff stages.
Meanwhile, SA captain Temba Bavuma and Rassie van der Dussen added 210 runs for the fourth wicket alliance but the Indian bowlers could not break the partnership. In fact, SA was struggling at 68-3 and that big association was the turning point of the game.
“Well, when there is a partnership, sometimes the captain goes out of ideas. I think that is what happened. This was a very good pitch to bat on. The ball was coming onto the bat quite nicely, you can play through the line,” Gavaskar said on Sports Today.
“But, these are early days of his captaincy and maybe things will turn around, let’s hope for Indian cricket’s sake that things turn around in the next couple of days,” he added.
The Little Master added that KL Rahul should continue to open the innings for the Indian team in the absence of Rohit Sharma, who has been ruled due to a hamstring injury.
“Not when Rohit is not around (when asked whether KL Rahul should bat in the middle-order). He is in the team as an opening batter in all formats of the game. I don’t think he should be looking to bat himself down at No. 4 or 5. Right at the top, he can lead from the front as well,” he added.
On the other hand, Gavaskar heaped praise on Shikhar Dhawan, who top-scored for the Indian team in the first ODI with 79 runs and played at the top of his game.
“As far as Shikhar Dhawan is concerned, he has been scoring runs in the 50-over format, not so much in T20s. So as long as the man is scoring runs, everything else should be put in the background. You should not be going to talk about his age and all that. I don’t see why there should be any talk about it,” Gavaskar added.
The second ODI will be played at the same venue of Boland Park, Paarl on Friday.
