The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has been sweating over the fitness of Shryeas Iyer and KL Rahul ahead of two major ICC events - 2023 Asia Cup and 2023 ODI World Cup tournaments. A few days back, some pictures and videos went viral on the internet in which both Iyer and Rahul were spotted practicing batting at Bengaluru's National Cricket Academy. Days later, in what comes as a big positive news for fans and team India selectors, a latest report claims that KL Rahul is showing some significant improvement on the road to recovery and has started donning the wicket-keeping gloves for an extended period. Going into the 2023 ODI World Cup, team India relies heavily on their first-choice wicketkeeper KL Rahul, a middle-order star, in absence of Rishabh Pant, who is unlikely to make a comeback anytime soon.
Both KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer underwent surgeries earlier this year after suffering injuries while playing. Since then, the duo have been training and recovering at the NCA, hoping to make a comeback for Asia Cup 2023 and ODI World Cup 2023.
“Rahul showed impressive fitness levels over the match simulation programme (at the NCA) while batting and doing the wicketkeeping duties for an extended period (today)," news agency PTI quoted the source as saying.
“He has started batting from earlier this week and has now added wicketkeeping as well," the source added.
Like Rahul, Shreyas Iyer too has shown significant progress and is very close to attain match-fitness. A call on availability of both these stars for 2023 Asia Cup and 2023 ODI World Cup will be taken soon by the BCCI. The suspense over their availability is about to end soon as India's Asia Cup 2023 squad is likely to be announced on Monday. India is slated to kickstart their 2023 Asia Cup campaign on September 2 with a blockbuster clash against Pakistan.