In less than two days from now, Team India will beckon their real ‘test’ against New Zealand. It will be a high-stakes game in Pune, given that they are trailing the series after a poor first-innings performance in Bengaluru. Ahead of the IND vs NZ 2nd Test, there has been an air around the position of one Indian player, who has more often than not found himself under the firing lines. Yes, KL Rahul might be dropped, especially after Sarfaraz Khan’s stellar show (150 runs in 2nd innings).
“Gambhir is keen on KL Rahul like Samson”
However, Ryan Ten Doeschate, India’s assistant coach, has asserted that the team management is looking to make no panic decisions on KL Rahul. Instead, he claimed that India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir is actually looking to give Rahul a long rope. “Gauti [Gautam Gambhir] is keen to give him a long rope like Sanju [Sanju Samson],” ten Doeschate said during the pre-match press conference on Tuesday.
Ten Doeschate also admitted that there is a fight for a spot in the Indian team. “Yeah, there’s no point in sugarcoating it, there’s a fight for a spot.” Sarfaraz Khan has piled up runs whenever he has got an opportunity, mustering 350 runs at a superb average of 58.33 with three fifties and a ton. “Sarfaraz was obviously brilliant in the last Test. I went to KL after the last Test (and) said how many balls do you play at (and) miss at? He didn’t play at (and) miss at one ball and that’s what tends to happen when you’re not getting runs.
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KL Rahul in ‘good mental space’
“There’s certainly no concerns about KL, he’s batting nicely, he’s in a good mental space. But we are certainly going to have to fit seven pieces into six spots for this Test and look at the pitch now and decide what’s going to be best for the team,” he said.
While Sarfaraz looked in ominous touch, KL was out of colour. Although the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) skipper came up with a blazing fifty in the Kanpur against Bangladesh, he has been short of runs. In fact, Rahul has scored 265 runs at a sorry average of 29.44 across formats this year. With Shubman Gill confirmed to be available for the IND vs NZ 2nd Test, it is uncertain who will make way for the preferred number three. Considering what ten Doeschate had to say about Rahul, it is likely that the Gambhir-coached team might be dropping Sarfaraz in favour of giving Rahul “a longer rope”.
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