KL Rahul had made 75* in 1st ODI to help India chase down 189-run target.
He was also dropped from the XI for the last two Tests against Australia in Indore and Ahmedabad and much was written about him with every failure he accumulated. One of his biggest critics was former India speedster, Venkatesh Prasad.
Prasad had taken to Twitter and wrote long threads on KL Rahul’s continued failures with the bat and compared the number of chances he got with some of the other batters and openers. He even got into a well-documented feud with Aakash Chopra, who had defended Rahul.
The debate later took an ugly turn with both taking shots at each other.
However, KL Rahul was retained in the ODI squad and he kept wickets as well, something he had done in the last ODI series India played in Bangladesh. He batted at no.5 and had won India a crucial match during the series when the top order failed.
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On Friday, KL Rahul once again came to the fore and helped India win the first ODI against Australia by making 75* and adding 44 runs with Hardik Pandya and 108* runs with Ravindra Jadeja as India won the match by 5 wickets chasing 189 runs.
Suniel Shetty, the father-in-law, of KL Rahul, was asked about the batter’s superlative performance and took a veiled dig at Venkatesh Prasad.
He said: “Upar wala jab hai na bahar koi kuch bhi bole (When God is with you, it does not matter what the outsiders say)."
However, in the second ODI, Rahul couldn’t recreate the magic of Mumbai and was dismissed for 9 runs as India was bundled out for 117 runs with Mitchell Starc taking 5/53, his 9th fifer.