The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) retains the same squad for the last two test matches of the Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT), Indian top-order batter KL Rahul was selected in the squad despite his continuous failure in red-ball cricket.
In the recent squad announcement, Rahul’s deputy tag was missing. One of the sources quoted by the Indian Express has revealed that the reason, it says that power is now with Indian skipper Rohit Sharma to pick his deputy, if he leaves the ground it’s up to him to decide the leader in his absence.
Reason revealed by the source after KL Rahul’s VC tag removal-
“It was decided not to name any vice-captain. Instead, the power was given to Rohit Sharma. Who will lead the side in case he has to leave the field is Rohit Sharma’s call,” a source told the publication.
Indian top-order batter Rahul has scored 198 runs in the last 12 innings and a total of 38 runs in three innings in the ongoing BGT and has looked completely out of form, even though one may argue that the pitches in Nagpur and Delhi were rank turner.
India have time to ponder over the make-up of their team for Indore and Ahmedabad. He was unlucky today but it might be time to look at Shubman Gill over KL Rahul.
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) February 19, 2023
Indian men’s cricket team coach Rahul Dravid defended KL Rahul-
“I think he needs to trust his processes. This is just a phase, he has been one of our most successful overseas openers. He’s got hundreds in South Africa and England, we’ll continue to back him. I believe he has the quality and class to come out of this,” said former Indian cricketer Dravid.
While the ODI squad against Australia saw the return of the likes of Shreyas Iyer, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel and KL Rahul, the BGT test squad remained the same as the first two matches, except for one little change of Rahul’s VC post exclusion.
Asian Giants will take on Pat Cummins-led side for the third test match of BGT at Indore on March 1st. It will be interesting to see if BCCI will make any announcement before the Indore test match, instead team sheet after the toss will reveal the VC name of the Indian test team.