KL Rahul: ‘Team India’s selection is rigged’, then questions arise on Rahul’s place – venkatesh prasad attack on out of form

Mumbai: Former India fast bowler Venkatesh Prasad came down heavily on KL Rahul, saying his selection for the first Test against Australia in Nagpur was based on “favouritism”. India defeated Australia in this match by an innings and 132 runs on the third day itself. For this match, 30-year-old Rahul was given priority over the in-form Shubman Gill. Rahul played a fighting innings of 20 off 71 balls in India’s first innings.

Prasad wrote on his Twitter handle, ‘Rahul was not selected on the basis of favoritism but on the basis of performance. There has been a consistent lack of consistency in his performances and this has been going on for almost eight years now. He has not converted his potential into performance. Rahul has a Test average of 34.07 in 46 matches and Prasad, citing his Test record, said that Ravichandran Ashwin, who has good cricket knowledge, should be made the vice-captain of the Test team along with Rohit Sharma.

Prasad said, ‘After spending more than eight years in international cricket, an average of 34 in 46 Tests is very normal. I don’t remember anyone else being given so many chances. While many are waiting for their turn and are in great form. Shubman Gill is in excellent form, Sarfaraz Khan is scoring runs in first-class matches and there are many who deserve to be selected ahead of Rahul.

In a series of tweets on Saturday, Prasad wrote, “Some people are lucky enough to be given endless chances to succeed while some don’t.” I respect Rahul’s talent and skills, but his performance has been underwhelming.

Rahul is also the captain of the Indian Premier League team Lucknow Super Giants and former India bowling coach Prasad claimed that this is also one of the reasons why he remains in the Test team despite poor performances. Prasad also listed the names of five cricketers who could replace Rahul as the vice-captain of the Test team.
“Rahul is the designated vice-captain of the team which makes matters worse. Ashwin has very good understanding of cricket and should be the vice captain in test format. If not him, it could be (Cheteshwar) Pujara or (Ravindra) Jadeja. Mayank Agarwal has made a far better impact in Tests than Rahul and so has (Hanuma) Vihari.

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