KL Rahul is expected to retain his place in India XI for 1st Test against Bangladesh.
The experienced batsman, who last played a Test at home against England earlier this year, is expected to reclaim his place from regional mainstay Sarfaraz Khan, despite the latter impressing on his first India call-up.
For the uninformed, Rahul only lost his spot to Sarfaraz owing to an injury during England Tests. While analyzing the squad, veteran India batsman Aakash Chopra felt that Rahul would have more to prove.
Chopra stated that Rahul has been dropped from the team too many times, implying that if the 50-Test veteran fails to score runs, an 'environment would be created' to force him out of the team once more.
"I personally like KL Rahul as a player. He will have to score runs. If he keeps scoring runs, he will keep moving forward. His fate is that he will always be in the shadows of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. These are the big guys. I feel Rahul is super talented and super skilled. He will keep playing until he keeps scoring runs. Although the team rates him very highly, an atmosphere gets created against him very quickly in Indian cricket," Chopra said on his YouTube channel.
Chopra said that if he were a selector, he would give someone like Rahul a longer run because of the number of "difficult runs" he has scored for the squad.
“There are plenty of people who go after him. So he won't get as long a rope as you would give to anyone else with the same caliber or pedigree. If it's up to me, I would definitely give it because he has scored a lot of runs and difficult runs," he added.
KL Rahul has reached Chennai and joined the Team India squad that has assembled for a preparatory camp ahead of the first Test.