Former Indian cricketer Irfan Pathan has lashed out at critics questioning KL Rahul’s place in the Indian ODI team ahead of the series against England. Rahul scored 114-ball 108 in the second ODI to help Team India post a competitive total of 336/6 after they were in a spot of bother at 37/2 at one stage.
The cricketer-turned-commentator, during a discussion on Star Sports, lauded KL Rahul for answering his critics in the best possible manner. He also pointed out that the wicketkeeper-batsman is among the few batsmen who can hold their own in any position in the batting order.
“It is unfortunate there were so many questions raised but if you see his last ten innings in ODIs before this series, he had an average above 60. Despite that people were trying to put him under pressure but his batting was praiseworthy, in the last match he started slowly but watching his century today gave a lot of happiness,” said Irfan Pathan.
“He is a fabulous cricketer. He has an amazing technique. Everyone does not have the capability to score runs consistently whether he is opening or playing in the middle order, KL Rahul can do that because he is technically sound,” the former Indian all-rounder further explained.
KL Rahul is India’s highest run-getter in ODIs since the start of 2020 — 613 runs. Highlighting the same, Parthiv Patel said KL Rahul’s excellent record in ODIs when asked by Aakash Chopra about the surprising discussions regarding the right-handed batsman’s selection in the Indian team.
“It is beyond understanding. Every time we make the same mistake that if a player has not scored runs in one format, we consider it in the other format as well but we forget that in the ODI format he has scored the most runs for India,” the former Indian wicketkeeper-batsman said.