It had probably shocked everyone when India skipper Virat Kohli picked Rishabh Pant in the first Test against New Zealand. Adding to the misery, Pant’s failure continued and the visitors lost the game by 10 wickets.
On the other side, we saw a new KL Rahul in the limited-overs fixtures when the flamboyant batsman took on the Kiwi bowlers and scored heaps of runs. Rahul was handed the responsibility of donning the gloves behind the wickets too and this added workload certainly helped him transform into a batsman, the Indian team was looking out for.
But despite his contributions, Rahul wasn’t picked for the New Zealand Tests.
Former India captain Kapil Dev has now questioned the team selection and the logic behind Pant getting a place in the side while Rahul being out of it.
The World Cup-winning captain also criticised the “big names” in the line-up and said that the batsmen haven’t read the conditions properly after the team was bundled out for less than 200 in both the innings. “Such big names in the batting order, if you cannot score even 200 runs in 2 innings, you have not been able to conquer conditions.”
KL Rahul was named in the Karnataka’s squad for their Ranji Trophy 2019/20 semi-final fixture against Bengal slated to begin on Saturday at the Eden Gardens stadium.
