The Indian workforce administration, headed by Rahul Dravid, has requested KL Rahul to be “ready to keep wickets and bat in middle-order” in ODIs going forward, the Indian vice-captain revealed on Sunday.
Rahul has sporadically stored wickets and batted within the middle-order again in 2021 and within the first ODI in opposition to Bangladesh, he did don the massive gloves, other than scoring 73 runs.
This was after Rishabh Pant was rested for the ODI sequence on the medical workforce’s recommendation.
Rahul dropped an aerial catch of Player-of-the-Match Mehidy Hasan Miraz, which might have ensured victory for India reasonably than a one-wicket defeat.
“We haven’t played a lot of ODIs in last eight-nine months but if you look at 2020-21, I have kept wickets, and I have batted at No. 4 and 5. This is the role that the team has asked me to be ready for in white-ball cricket as I have done it before,” Rahul curtly replied when requested about Pant’s absence.
Rahul, who by advantage of being vice-captain, is part of the workforce administration, nevertheless didn’t make clear whether or not Pant was rested due to workload administration or because of some niggle.
“When it comes to Rishabh, I am not sure to be honest, just found today that he is going to be released. What the reasons are, medical team will be in a better situation to answer those questions.”
Rahul didn’t really feel that both batters or bowlers must be held answerable for this defeat.
“That’s cricket right. You have to expect the unexpected. As long as cricket has been played, these kind of things keep happening. They fought very well till the end and the couple of dropped catches and that innings from Mehidy.”
He was personally glad after scoring runs on a difficult wicket.
“One of those days where it looked like I was timing the ball better (than others). The shots I picked fortunately went to boundary, every option that I picked went my way,” he mentioned.
“Such innings gives you joy as a batter as you are challenged and you put your hand up when the team requires. Ideally, we should have got 40 runs more. I did fancy 230-240 if I batted till the end or even if I could have batted till the 40th over.”