Gautam Gambhir, the former India cricketer, said that KL Rahul has confirmed his spot at no.4 in the Indian batting lineup for the upcoming ICC World Cup 2023 thanks to this performance in the ongoing Asia Cup tournament.
Rahul made his return to the Indian colors in the Asia Cup in the Super 4s match against Pakistan and hammered a brilliant 111* to help India post 356/2 after adding an unbeaten 233 runs with Virat Kohli (122*) for the third wicket. He also kept the wickets in that match.
And then in the crunch match against Sri Lanka, Rahul made 39 runs and added a vital 63 runs with Ishan Kishan (33) to help India post a good total of 213 batting first. India won the match by 41 runs thanks to four wickets from Kuldeep Yadav.
The 31-year-old also did well behind the stumps, taking a couple of sharp catches against Sri Lanka.
Gambhir feels that Rahul has now cemented himself at the number 4 position in the absence of Shreyas Iyer as the latter might return to the team at the number 5.
“The number five position is now open. Whether Shreyas Iyer comes into it, whether they play Suryakumar at seven and Hardik at five or Jadeja at five, now KL Rahul has secured that number four spot as a wicketkeeper-batsman. So, it is pretty much clear, which is good for Indian cricket that they have backed KL Rahul as a wicketkeeper now and who’s batting at number four. Before the game against Pakistan, he was not supposed to play that game, but came as a replacement and got that big hundred," Gambhir said on Star Sports.
Gambhir was also very impressed with Rahul’s keeping in the two matches and suggested he will be playing as a wicketkeeper in the ICC ODI World Cup 2023 starting next month.
“He played good cricket and kept the wicket well against Jadeja and Kuldeep on a wicket that does grip. It is pretty much clear that KL Rahul is your wicketkeeper-batter going into the World Cup," he added.
Gambhir suggested that the team management has made it clear that Rahul will be playing over Kishan as the wicketkeeper batter in the Indian team for their opening match in the World Cup against Australia in Chennai on October 8.
“I think the team management has made it very clear that it’s going to be KL Rahul who would be keeping in the World Cup because there was Ishan Kishan, and if Kishan was in the scheme of things of playing in the 11 against Australia, then he would have kept wickets for India because he was the main wicket-keeper but now in the last two games KL Rahul has kept wickets," the former India opener explained.
India has qualified for the final of the Asia Cup which will be played on Sunday, September 17.
