Credit: X/BCCI
During a press conference, the BCCI chief selector, Ajit Agarkar, explained the omission of KL Rahul from the Indian squad for the upcoming ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024. The 46-year-old spoke about looking for players batting in the middle order, and since KL Rahul bats at the top order, he wasn’t picked for the T20 World Cup.
Ajit Agarkar joined the press conference with the captain of the Indian cricket team, Rohit Sharma, to address the Indian squad for the upcoming ICC tournament. When asked about the exclusion of KL Rahul from the T20 World Cup 2024, the chief selector gave props to the right-handed batter before divulging the reasoning behind his decision.
According to Ajit Agarkar, KL Rahul missed out on a spot in the Indian cricket team at the expense of Sanju Samson and Rishabh Pant, since they are known to bat in the middle order in the shortest format unlike him. He was quoted as saying, “KL’s a terrific player, we all know that. The thing we were looking for is guys who bat at the middle and KL bats at the top.”
“We feel Sanju has the ability to come down the order. Rishabh is batting at 5, that was more the thinking. Two incredible players as well,” the 46-year-old added.
Notably, KL Rahul has been batting in the IPL 2024 at the top of the order for Lucknow Super Giants, and he is leading from the front with telling contributions with the bat. In his 10 matches, he has scored 406 runs at an average of 40.06 with a decent strike rate of 142.95, including three fifties in total.