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Team India had a great start to their T20 World Cup 2022 campaign as the Men in Blue registered a famous win over arch-rivals Pakistan. Virat Kohli played an inning of the ages to push India over the line. The Rohit Sharma-led team then easily cruised past the Netherlands in their next game to earn two more points. This time, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Suryakumar Yadav were among the runs.
India then took on South Africa in their third game with an aim to consolidate their position in the Group. However, the Men in Blue suffered a five-wicket defeat in a close-fought game. Although Suryakumar Yadav scored runs and the pacers did a fantastic job, but India could not finish the game in their favour. Nevertheless, there were a few positives from this game too.
But there was also a major negative - KL Rahul failing to score yet again. The opening batter once again departed cheaply leaving plenty of work for the others. This was the third consecutive failure for Rahul in the same number of games. In fact, Rahul has scored only 22 runs in three games. He has registered scores of 4, 9, and 9 in the three games so far. These failures have raised questions about his place in the team.
The team’s head coach Rahul Dravid was asked about it in the pre-match press conference of the Bangladesh match. And he has made it clear that the team management will continue to back Rahul as he is too good a player to be left out. Dravid said that such things (consecutive failures) can happen in T20Is.
"I think he is a fantastic player, he has a proven track record. I think he has been batting superbly. These things can happen in T20Is, it has not been that easy for top-order batters. This tournament has been challenging, I think he was brilliant in the practice games against the likes of Pat Cummins, and Mitchell Starc. He got 60 or 70. I am hoping that it all clicks together in the next few games," said Dravid.
"We know his quality and ability, he is very well suited for these conditions. He has got a good all-round game and he has a very good backfoot game which is required in these conditions. We are happy with the way he has been hitting it," he added.
