In contrast to KL Rahul’s performance in the Bengaluru Test match, which has drawn questions, India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir has come out in his support claiming he does not care about the Twitter trolls. For the second Test in the ongoing three match series against New Zealand, Rahul was dismissed for a golden duck and managed a mere 12 runs as India lost the match by eight wickets and went down 1-0 in the series.
With Sarfaraz Khan making a case for himself in that line up, it is fair to say that Rahul is also running out of time to establish himself in India’s lower middle order on a regular basis. Sarfaraz made a big hundred after getting selected in the playing XI due to presence of Shubman Gill who was ruled out.
“Social media does not matter one bit,” said Gambhir to the reporters on Wednesday. “What is more significant is the opinion of the team management and leadership group. He is batting exceptionally well, had a good innings in Kanpur (his last outing against Bangladesh on a tough wicket).
“Of course he knows that he has to get big scores because he can and that is precisely why he has the team’s backing…In the end everyone is cricket and there is a reason for that, it is called international cricket. ‘Evaluating’,” he stated.
India was over-confident going into the match because of an impressive home record but New Zealand shocked them in conditions fitting seam and swing bowling. Gambhir had nothing to argue against as he admitted the visitors were the better team.
“Cricket, sports are a big leveller. It goes like this: We have had fun in days such as Kanpur, but had to put up with what we got in Bengaluru. We did not exhibit any desire to stay at the crease for the balance of two and a half days,” Gambhir mentioned.
With the M Chinnaswamy Stadium wicket offering seam and swing support, India declared at a paltry 46 in their first innings. They however, replied strongly by scoring 462 and in the process, Rachin Ravindra was the star, scoring a breath-taking hundred.
In their second batting innings, India put up a far better performance than the first, but it was still not up to the mark as New Zealand claimed their maiden Test victory on Indian territory after 1988.
The second Test commences from Thursday in Pune.
