Sunil Gavaskar said stand-in captain KL Rahul looked he had run out of ideas when South Africa captain Temba Bavuma and Rassie van der Dussen were involved in a match-winning partnership in the first ODI in Paarl on Wednesday. Sunil Gavaskar said it’s still early days for captain KL Rahul and that he hopes India can turn it around in the 2nd and 3rd ODIs of the ongoing series in South Africa.
Sunil Gavaskar questioned India’s bowling changes, highlighting that both Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar needed to bowl more overs at the backend and Venkatesh Iyer could have rolled his arm over in the middle overs to trouble the partnership between Temba Bavuma and Rassie van der Dussen that stretched to 204 runs.
South Africa rode on twin centuries from skipper Temba Bavuma (110 off 143 balls) and Player-of-the-Match Rassie van der Dussen (129* off 96 balls) to canter to a 31-run win over India in the first of the three-match ODI series in Paarl on Wednesday. Chasing 297 on a sluggish pitch, the visitors only managed 265/8 in their 50 overs.
Sunil Gavaskar: KL Rahul Ran Out Of Ideas In The 1st ODI
South Africa posted 296/4 on the board after opting to bat and restricted India to 265/8 despite the much-needed fifties from Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, and Shardul Thakur.
“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.
During that partnership, it did look as if he had run out of ideas. KL Rahul didn’t know where to go as despite having two-most experienced death-overs bowlers in Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, they weren’t picked to bowl the last over as Shardul Thakur’s last over saw 17 runs coming instead. Both Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Shardul Thakur conceded more than 6 runs per over in the 1st ODI.
“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.
KL Rahul was leading India in the absence of Rohit Sharma who did not travel to South Africa after suffering a hamstring injury. The Karnataka batter opened the batting for India along with Shikhar Dhawan who scored 79 on the ODI return but failed to get going in the series opener.
Sunil Gavaskar: KL Rahul Needed To Open In Absence Of Rohit Sharma
When asked if KL Rahul should consider playing in the middle-order to beef up the batting unit, Sunil Gavaskar said the stand-in captain needs to open in the absence of Rohit Sharma, whose injured.
“Not when Rohit is not around. 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.
Meanwhile, Sunil Gavaskar also heaped praise on Shikhar Dhawan who hit a solid 79 on his return to the ODI side amid doubts over his place in the team.
“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.
India will face South Africa in the 2nd of the 3-match series on Friday, January 21 in Paarl. India skipper KL Rahul won the toss and opted to bat first against South Africa in the second ODI in Paarl. India has gone in unchanged while the Proteas have replaced Marco Jansen with Sisanda Magala. The latter picked the wicket of KL Rahul after he scored 55.
India made a solid start in the second ODI with captain KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan stitching a 63-run opening stand before they lost both Shikhar Dhawan (29) and Virat Kohli (0) successively. India is presently at 187/4 in 34th over after Rishabh Pant scored a quickfire 85.