'When Someone Is Down': Former Cricketer Gautam Gambhir Backs KL Rahul

However, former India opener Gautam Gambhir has backed Rahul and requested the former cricketers not to speak ill about the opening batter on social media.

India’s batter KL Rahul has not been able to score runs for quite some time now. A lot of debate is going around him about whether Indian management should play him or not. Rahul scored just 38 runs in the first two Tests against Australia in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy. A lot of former cricketers including Venkatesh Prasad have castigated Rahul for his poor run.

However, former India opener Gautam Gambhir has backed Rahul and requested the former cricketers not to speak ill about the opening batter on social media.

"I would definitely want to say about all that buzz created on social media. Look, if you want to help someone out or if you want to criticise someone, you might as well criticise behind closed doors. You don't criticise on social media....the social media things that happen is probably to increase the followers and create the narrative," Gautam Gambhir told Times Now.

"I think when India is in the middle of a series...whether getting selected or not getting selected is none of the experts' job; it's the selectors' job. When India is 2-0 up, it's now 2-0 down, and more importantly, when someone is down, he should be backed - it's not that because he is the captain of LSG - I absolutely believe that when you need support, that's when players and everyone should give him support."

In the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy, the Indian team have taken a 2-0 lead in the four-match series against Australia. Both the teams will now be facing each other in the third Test from March 1 in Indore.

Squads:

India: Rohit Sharma (Captain), S Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan (wicketkeeper), Hardik Pandya (Vice-captain), R Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, W Sundar, Y Chahal, Mohd Shami, Mohd Siraj, Umran Malik, Shardul Thakur, Axar Patel, Jaydev Unadkat.

Australia: Pat Cummins (capt), Ashton Agar, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green (injured), Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Lance Morris, Todd Murphy, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc (injured), Mitchell Swepson, David Warner.