As per sources, Indian captain Rohit Sharma and batter KL Rahul will likely to miss the home series against Sri Lanka in January. Rohit Sharma is still recuperating from the thumb injury he sustained while fielding during the second ODI against Bangladesh. KL Rahul on the other hand is likely to get married during this phase, sources added.
The Srilankan team will be playing in India from January 3 to January 15. They will be locking horns in three T201s and three ODIs. Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul have not been scoring runs for quite some time now. Rohit has scored 90 runs at an average of 30 in the two Tests he played this year. Rahul has collected 137 runs at an average of 17.12 in the four Tests he played this year.
Earlier, India somehow managed to pull that win against Bangladesh in the second Test of the series on Sunday. While chasing a mediocre total of 145 runs, India lost 7 wickets at one point in time. Senior batters like KL Rahul, Virat Kohli and Pujara again disappointed. However, Under the captaincy of Rahul, India won the Test series against Bangladesh by 2-0. But it was Ravichandran Ashwin and Shreyas Iyer's heroics that helped India win the match before lunch on the fourth morning. The 71-run partnership between Iyer and Ashwin is the second-highest for India for the eighth wicket.
Dinesh Karthik also questioned KL Rahul’s terrible average in Test cricket. “I would give KL those couple of Test matches, but if things don’t go Kl Rahul’s way… The one thing that does go against him is the fact that he has played over 40 Tests and his average is just mid-30s. That is not acceptable for an opener. That is one of the lowest among Indian players for sure, who have played 35 Test matches,” Karthik told Cricbuzz.
“That is something that he needs to definitely work on. That will be on his mind. If he wants to cement his place in the Test team, he needs to get a couple of hundreds against Australia. Otherwise, you can definitely see a change, with Shubman Gill doing so well,” he added.