Indian skipper Virat Kohli decided to drop KL Rahul to make way for Dinesh Karthik in the third ODI at Headingley, Leeds. Karthik finally got a spot in the playing XI after his last-ball six heroics in Nidahas Trophy final against Bangladesh. Whereas Suresh Raina has been given another chance in the playing XI despite criticism.
Kohli labelled dropping ‘Rahul’ as a ‘tactical move. Whereas in a pre-match press conference, India’s assistant coach Sanjay Bangar justified the selection of Raina over Karthik. Bangar said, “The plan was to have a left-hander batting in the middle-order. And that is the reason why Suresh was picked ahead of Dinesh”.
The decision did not go down well with Twitterati as they expressed their disappointment —
Still can’t get Skipper’s logic. Dropping KL Rahul for Dinesh Karthik? Suresh Raina still in the squad, achaaa.
We wanted DK but obviously not in place of KL.
Will witness someone dancing to the short balls today as well. #INDvENG— Jessy Rajkumari (@imJR_4) July 17, 2018
KL Rahul dropped ‘tactically’ after one ODI failure. Karthik deserves his opportunity but… Sigh.
Bhuvi and Shardul back for Kaul and Umesh.
— Saurabh Malhotra (@MalhotraSaurabh) July 17, 2018
Triple whammy: KL Rahul is out… Dinesh Karthik is in. #EngvInd
— Chetan Narula (@chetannarula) July 17, 2018
Dropping KL Rahul and retaining Raina is a weird call but Rahul has himself to blame for his poor consistency. Raina just lucky., #ENGvIND
— Harsha (@Hramblings) July 17, 2018
It’s ridiculous to drop K L Rahul from the team. Dinesh karthik could have been in by replacing someone else but not KL. Rahul is in fine form , scored a century just a few days ago. Just one failure in the last match and he is dropped. #INDvsENG
— Anand Hegde (@hegdemacha) July 17, 2018
Hahahahahaha Raina retained but KL Rahul dropped. Shocker in. Kohli and Shastri are pretty much the only guys who can stop India from winning the World Cup. Hopefully they deliver at the main event too.
— Shanky (@CricAussieFan) July 17, 2018
Hahahahahaha Raina retained but KL Rahul dropped. Shocker in. Kohli and Shastri are pretty much the only guys who can stop India from winning the World Cup. Hopefully they deliver at the main event too.
— Shanky (@CricAussieFan) July 17, 2018
3 disasters in 3rd ODI by India.
1) KL Rahul dropped.
2) Suresh Raina still playing.
3) Rohit Sharma missed his century by just 98 runs.#ENGvIND #INDvsENG
— Ravi (@Jai_Shri_Shyam_) July 17, 2018
No KL Rahul is a joke. At this rate, India will never find their no. 4 in ODI cricket. Karthik should have replaced Raina.
— Shubh AggarWall (@shubh_chintak) July 17, 2018
If KL Rahul gets 10 odis at a trot at 4 th position he will get atleast 2 hundreds and 3 50s for sure
— anoop (@anoopb200) July 17, 2018
Opener Shikhar Dhawan has not been playing in the best of forms on the England tour. Dhawan scored just 19 runs in three T20Is and struggled to convert good starts in the ODIs. Rahul got out for a duck in the Lord’s ODI and he was ousted from the playing XI. But the Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) opener scored a scintillating hundred in the T20Is which is hard to ignore after one bad performance.
ALSO READ: Vinod Kambli Sheds ‘Tears Of Joy’ After Arjun Tendulkar Takes His Debut U-19 Wicket
Even Gautam Gambhir opined that Karthik should play ahead of Raina if India was looking for a balanced batsman. If the southpaw fails to score in the decider, he is bound to face flak from the fans.
