KL Rahul leads India in the ODI series in South Africa in the absence of Rohit Sharma.© AFP
KL Rahul appeared to be “out of ideas” during the 204-run partnership between South African captain Temba Bavuma and Rassie van der Dussen in India’s 31-run loss at Paarl in the 1st ODI on Wednesday, according to cricket greats Sunil Gavaskar. Bavuma was joined by Van der Dussen in the opening phase, while South Africa struggled 68/3. The duo added 204 runs for the fourth wicket to help the Proteas reach an impressive 296/4 total. In response, India was only able to manage 265/8. The visitors will try to come back and equalize Friday’s three-game streak in the second ODI.
“Well, when there’s a partnership, sometimes the captain runs out of ideas. I think that’s what happened. This was a really good throw to serve. The ball landed on the bat very nicely, you can go through the line,” Gavaskar told Sports Today.
Rahul leads India in the ODI series in South Africa in the absence of the injured Rohit Sharma.
“During that collaboration, it seemed like he was running out of ideas. KL Rahul didn’t know where to go. When you have your two most experienced death-overs bowlers in (Jasprit) Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar (Kumar), you have to get them the last Keeping 5-6 overs, so that’s where you can prevent the opponent from taking off with a big score,” added the former India captain.
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“But these are the first days of his captaincy and maybe there will be a turnaround, for the sake of Indian cricket let’s hope things change in the coming days.”
Gavaskar also praised Shikhar Dhawan, who played a knockout of 79 on Wednesday. “As for Shikhar Dhawan, he has scored runs in the 50-over format, not so much in T20s. So as long as the man scores runs, everything else should be put in the background. You shouldn’t go to talk about his age and stuff. I don’t see why it should be talked about,” said Gavaskar.
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