KL Rahul was selected as a batsman had to keep wickets for Team India after Rishabh Pant was hit on the head by a short ball in the first innings of the first ODI at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
While keeping in the first ODI at Mumbai, Rahul missed a simple catch behind the stumps and the crowd immediately started the chants of ‘Dhoni! Dhoni!’, a routine occurrence these days after an Indian wicketkeeper errs.
IND v AUS 2020: KL Rahul will continue to keep wickets for a while, confirms Virat Kohli
Here’s the video of the crowd chanting ‘Dhoni Dhoni’ at Wankhede Stadium:
KL Rahul misses the ball
— Vinesh Prabhu (@vlp1994) January 14, 2020
Crowd starts chanting Dhoni... Dhoni ????#INDvsAUS #Dhoni pic.twitter.com/Oc6CcelfjJ
But, in the second ODI, Rahul showed great improvement in keeping and puzzled many whether he could be a long-term option as a wicketkeeper-batsman to boost the balance of the side.
When the action moved to Bengaluru for the third ODI, things were a bit different as when Kuldeep Yadav had beaten a charging Steve Smith, but the ball hit Smith’s pad and went away for a boundary with keeper having no chance of stopping it, one section of crowd at Chinnaswamy started chanting Dhoni’s name.
But, another section of the crowd responded by chanting ‘Rahul! Rahul!’ and skipper Virat Kohli also pointed towards the Indian keeper to egg that section of the crowd on. It was really great to see the Bengaluru crowd backing the local lad.