Cricketing fans were not so pleased after Indian cricket team selectors omitted KL Rahul of the playing XI from the Third ODI against England at Headingley, Leeds. Dinesh Karthik who was benched for a quite long time got his chance to play for India replacing right-hand batsmen, KL Rahul who was one of India's key player in the T20I series.
Apart from KL Rahul, Umesh Yadav and Siddarth Kaul were also rested for the last ODI match against England which gave Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Shardul Thakur a chance to prove their metal.
While talking about the necessary changes, Indian captain Virat Kohli said "DK was a tactical change and the other two because they haven't got a game yet. Karthik has done well in that spot and we wanted a guy in the middle overs who can be versatile and improvise a little. If you're playing against the No.1 ODI side in the world, you expect them to have a good day and play better than you in all discipline."
In the pre-match conference, Indian batting coach Sanjay Bangar had said they are trying to fix the issue of number 4 slot to which they will have to experiment players before the 2019 World Cup starts.
"Going forward, there's still 16, 17 games to go (until the World Cup), we are looking at the games remaining where we could look at settling the middle-order slots," Bangar said.
This was how Indian fans criticised Team India selectors over choosing Dinesh Karthik for KL Rahul-
Again silly selection from Virat..why he is not giving kl Rahul enough chances..if he want to include DK then Dhoni should have been dropped.. dropping match winner and keeping match looser..just Kohli can do this..????????
— Dnyaneshwar Ghodake (@iamnil2891) July 17, 2018
First make KL Rahul to bat at no 4 and then expect him to flop one match and yay! tatical change worked #INDvENG #ENGvsIND while Rohit Sharma gets 25 chances to get a good personnel score. Hypocrisy at its best.
— Prashanth Sowdi (@psowdi) July 17, 2018
Dropping KL Rahul is a joke of a decision. His effort is seamless when he bats. He can play in all formats for India long term but needs a run in the team to give him the confidence #india #indiaengland #odi #decider
— Tarun Kharbanda (@Mr_Tarun_K) July 17, 2018
Two players who are the permanent scapegoats regardless of how the entire team performs on a given day are Shikhar Dhawan in test and KL Rahul in ODI,very unfortunate but true. #ENGvIND
— Aayushi Rathi ???????? (@aayushi07rathi) July 17, 2018
(Inputs from NDTV)
