IND vs AUS 2022 | KL Rahul sacrificed his wicket for team, opines Sunil Gavaskar
KL Rahul has been scoring with a low strike rate recently
|(BCCI)
Former India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar has stated that KL Rahul sacrificed his wicket for the team and he is not concerned about the batter’s form. Gavaskar further added that KL Rahul should prefer to play proper cricketing shots to keep scoring runs consistently in the upcoming games.
There has been a continuous debate regarding KL Rahul’s form and strike rate lately in the T20Is. His form played apart in India’s recent Asia Cup debacle and the opener has registered only two half-centuries since his return from injury. One of them came against a weak Afghanistan side while one was scored against Australia in the first T20I. However, former India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar thinks otherwise saying that he sacrificed his wicket to match the attacking template of the team.Â
"Well, he was doing what the team was expecting him to do which was both the times, you saw he got a fifty in the first game but in the second game, where he had to throw the bat from the first ball because it was an 8-overs-a-side game, he sacrificed his wicket for the team," Gavaskar told Star Sports after India wrapped a 2-1 series win on Sunday in Hyderabad.
"Similarly, the asking rate in the 3rd T20I match was more than 9 runs an over, it's never easy, you want to get off to a good start. He sacrificed his wicket over there," he added.
Rahul has aggregated scores of 0, 36, 28, 6, 62, 55, and 10 ever since his return from injury. He has been dismissed on multiple occasions trying to play aerial shots or to attack. Gavaskar advised that he should play proper cricketing shots to succeed in the long term.Â
"Again, like Kohli, when Rahul is playing proper cricketing shots, then he is unstoppable. But when these two players are trying to swing across the line, that is not their strength. They can play across the line when they come to the front foot and flick it that away but trying to play that cross-batter shot, they get into trouble. If they try to avoid that, they will keep scoring runs consistently," he explained.
