India legend Sunil Gavaskar has backed underfire batter KL Rahul to be in the team for the second Test against Australia in Delhi which begins on February 17 onwards. India has already won the first Test in Nagpur by an innings and 132 runs to go 1-0 up in the four-Test series.

While Rohit Sharma scored a brilliant century and Ravindra Jadeja did well with both the bat and ball, Akshar Patel scored his career-best 84 runs. R Ashwin ran through the Australian batting in the second innings with a fifer.

But KL Rahul was disappointed with the bat as he was the first victim of Australia debutant off-spinner Todd Murphy, to whom he gave a return catch when batting on 20 runs. Rahul has been under fire for his poor performances in the past as well.

The Indian team took a huge gamble on him, by benching in-form batter Shubman Gill in favor of Rahul, and hoped for a big score from the Karnataka batter, but he seemingly played for his spot in the team instead of trying to dominate the opposition bowlers.

Meanwhile, India batting legend Sunil Gavaskar backed KL Rahul, who is also the Test vice-captain, to be given one more chance in the second Test in Delhi.

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“I feel the way he has batted in the last 1-2 years, he performed well. I feel he should be given one more chance. I’m sure he will be backed for the Test match in Delhi. After that you can give it a thought because you have an in-form batter ready to replace him, Shubman Gill,” Gavaskar told India Today.

Former India player Madan Lal also echoed Gavaskar’s thoughts and said that Rahul should get at least one more chance.

“He should definitely get a chance. Even when Vikram Rathour had come to the press conference he had reminded that he scored a century in South Africa. He does have the ability but he has been out of form lately…scoring against Australia is a big challenge in itself and getting those runs gives a morale boost. But he can been stuck here. However, based on his ability, he should get another chance,” he said.

It remains to be seen whether the Indian team management persists with KL Rahul especially with the talented Shubman Gill putting pressure on him.