Despite India’s convincing win over Bangladesh in the opening Test in Chennai, former cricketer Aakash Chopra reflected on two areas where captain Rohit Sharma and coach Gautam Gambhir could have made different decisions.
One of those involved KL Rahul, who has been under scrutiny recently. In the first innings, Rahul looked comfortable before a poor shot led to his dismissal for 16. In the second innings, he was unbeaten on 22 off 19 when Rohit declared with India at 287/4.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Chopra suggested that Rohit and Gambhir could have given Rahul more time at the crease, especially since India had a substantial lead.
“One-and-a-half days were left, you won by 280 runs, you didn’t enforce the follow-on, you weren’t short on time, and there was no rain forecast. So could we have allowed KL Rahul to score 60-70 runs?” he questioned.
Chopra argued that extending India’s innings by an hour wouldn’t have changed the outcome or added to the players’ workload.
“When it’s not impacting the result or workload management, and a player is on 22 off 19 balls, giving him one or one-and-a-quarter hours wouldn’t have affected anything,” he added.
Chopra also recalled Rahul Dravid’s controversial declaration when Sachin Tendulkar was on 194 against Pakistan in 2004, clarifying that he wasn’t comparing Rahul to Tendulkar. However, he noted that Rahul, a specialist batter pushed down to No. 6, deserved a chance.
“I’m not saying Rahul was at 195, but he is KL Rahul, and you’ve put him at No. 6, a position proper batters don’t usually play. They should have thought about him because it wouldn’t have impacted the result of the match,” he concluded.