In what comes as a huge news from the Indian cricket circuit, it is now being learnt that KL Rahul could lose his place in the national team for the home T20I series against Sri Lanka. Despite having immense potential which he has shown consistently in the Indian Premier League (IPL), Rahul has dealt with consistency issues in international cricket. The news of Rahul likely to be axed from the team was reported by the Press Trust of India.
Not only has the 30-year-old batter been out of form in the shortest format but even in the Test matches against Bangladesh, where Rahul got to lead the team in the absence of regular captain Rohit Sharma, he failed to make a significant contribution with the bat. Earlier reports had already suggested that Rohit's injury might take a little more time to leave which could make the selection committee's job easier of naming Hardik Pandya as the captain of the T20I side.
It would be interesting to see if Rohit gets the leadership role back in the shortest format once he is the back and available for selection. Several reports have also emerged claiming that Hardik could be named the captain in both the white-ball formats to avoid a gap in communication.
India Beat Bangladesh Despite Rahul, Virat's Failure
Despite the failure of the two of the big guns in their batting department- Virat Kohli and Rahul, India managed to beat Bangladesh in the Test series. While they had clinched the first match comfortably by a margin of 188 runs, the second Test was a thrilling one and looked to go in Bangladesh's way when the Men in Blue were 7 down for 74, chasing 145.
However, R Ashwin and Shreyas Iyer stitched an unbeaten 71-run stand and helped India over the line to win the match by 3 wickets. Ashwin for his all-round performance in the match was adjudged the Player of the Match while Cheteshwar Pujara was given the Player of the Series honour for his 222 runs in the 2 Test matches.