'I Believe That he Should be...': Gautam Gambhir Reacts on KL Rahul's Slump in Form Amid Backlash From Venkatesh Prasad

Gautam Gambhir lauded Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid for backing a talent like KL Rahul despite flurry of failures and said that the underfire deserves these many chances

Source: Twitter

The current hot topic in Indian cricket is KL Rahul ans his slump in form. The India Test opener has been underperforming for two series now. He failed in Bangladesh and has had poor outings vs Australia in the first two Tests of Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023. Rahul's critics, including Venkatesh Prasad, believe that he has got more chances than others which clearly shows a bias of the current management and the selectors. In various twitter threads, Prasad has blasted Rahul and the selectors for continuing to give Rahul opportunities while others like Prithvi Shaw and Sarfaraz Khan are denied even one match to prove their worth in Test cricket. 

Gautam Gambhir, who is mentor of Lucknow Super Giants, the IPL side Rahul leads has come out now to lend some support to Rahul. Gambhir feels that like Rohit Sharma, who once was struggling in international cricket, Rahul too should be given the space to fail before he finds his peal. While speaking to ANI Gambhir said: "Sometimes you back someone`s talent. I applaud Rohit Sharma that he is backing him. Rohit also went through a similar situation in his initial days when he was unable to score a lot of runs. But he got plenty of chances and now sees where he is, so he knows about KL Rahul and I support Rohit`s decision. We are up by 2-0 in this series, not down by two games. I believe that he should be given a chance in the next two tests and he will do better."

There is a view that KL Rahul has an outstanding overseas Test record. But stats speak otherwise. He has a test avg of 30 overseas in 56 innings. He has scored 6 overseas centuries but followed it up with a string of low scores that's why averaging 30. Let's look at a few others pic.twitter.com/MAvHM01TcY

— Venkatesh Prasad (@venkateshprasad) February 20, 2023

Team India management has already stated that they are going to back Rahul to the hilt. Dravid had earlier said that a bad phase comes in career of any cricketer and Rahul is going through the same rough patch. Dravid is sure Rahul will hit form soon. However, it is the inconsistency which is a big concern with Rahul, who last scored an Test hundred s South Africa in Centurion.