Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar spoke about KL Rahul’s first impression as test captain as Karnataka opener led India for the first time in the Johannesburg Test. Though Dean Elgar & Co. beat the visitors by 7 wickets to level the series by 1-1 with one test match to go.
On the morning of the second Test match, Virat Kohli was ruled out due to an upper back spasm. So KL Rahul, who was named vice-captain in absence of Rohit Sharma, walked out for the toss as 34th Test captain for India. Since Kohli took over as captain, India never lost a Test match in his absence until the Johannesburg Test as Rahane led India in 6 Tests with 4 wins and 2 draws.
He made a decent start with the bat as he scored a fifty in the first innings when India bowled out for 202. However, Sunil Gavaskar believes that Rahul needs to be more aggressive in terms of field placements.
“This is the first time actually where India have lost a Test where Virat Kohli isn’t playing. They won most of the matches where Kohli didn’t play and there was a draw in Sydney. But coming to KL Rahul, I thought giving Dean Elgar those singles at the start of the second innings was making his life a little bit easier.
“He is not one of the hookers of the ball hence keeping two men in the deep made no sense. He was instead taking singles quite comfortably. The field placements also could have been a little bit sharper. Some of the attempts were below par. But not taking anything away from the South Africans, it was they who won the game. I don’t think the Indians lost it,” Gavaskar said.
