The boiling pot had already been placed under KL Rahul even before the commencement of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023, when it became certain that he would be the one partnering Rohit Sharma at the top and not Shubman Gill.
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With scores of 20, 17, and 1 in the three innings during the first two Tests, a huge section across social media platforms is now expectedly all over him like a rash, with calls for him being dropped from the team more vocal than its has perhaps ever been.
With the highest score of mere 23 across last ten Test innings, Rahul averages a disappointing 12.50 having scored mere 125 runs. String of consistent low scores innings upon innings since January 2022, rightfully deserves criticisms and perhaps calls for ouster too.
Former Indian pacer Venkatesh Prasad, who has consistently been criticizing Rahul owing his ordinary returns, engaged in a war of words with commentator Aakash Chopra who is perhaps backing KL Rahul to come good. Chopra even went on to accuse Prasad while calling him an agenda peddler against the Indian opener.
Harbhajan Singh joins Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid in backing KL Rahul
Former India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, after looking at the aplenty harsh criticisms coming Rahul’s way since the end of the second Test, and perhaps the recent verbal ding-dong between Prasad and Chopra, took to his Twitter handle to opine on the matter a few minutes ago as well.
Joining the Indian coach-skipper duo of Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma, Harbhajan too believes Rahul to come back strong and again be amongst the runs. He further requested the fans to have faith in him and not treat a player of their own country akin a criminal.
Can we leave @klrahul alone guys ? He hasn’t done any crime.He is still a top player. He will come back strong.we all go thru such patches in international cricket.he is not the first one and last one. so please respect the fact that he is our own 🇮🇳 player and have faith 🙏
— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) February 21, 2023
While Rohit Sharma backs Rahul with respect to the huge potential that he possesses citing his record in Overseas Tests, Dravid has explicitly stated that he will continue backing the out-of-form opener.
It remains to be seen whether or not Rahul does get benched during the third Test match which begins from March 1 onwards, at Indore.
