It takes only two bad games, and all the good work you did preceding that lull spell easily goes unnoticed. KL Rahul is a prime example of this. After cementing his place as India's first-choice wicketkeeper batter in the team in ODIs, the 33-year-old now finds himself in the spot of bother after twin failures with bat in hand in the first two ODIs against England. Worst, the dip in form has just come to Rahul at the wrong time as the Champions Trophy is just nine days away.
The wicketkeeper batter got dismissed for just 10 runs in the second ODI and got out for just two runs in the first game. On both occasions, Rahul's job was just to anchor the run chase without taking any undue risks, but he failed in doing so. Worst, the right-hand batter also got one DRS call wrong in the second ODI in Cuttack. Joe Root was the batter, as he missed the sweep shot of Axar Patel's bowling.
The on-field umpire gave no out, and later discussions followed up between Rahul, Axar, and Rohit Sharma. The skipper asked Rahul for his opinion, and he turned down the request of him in opting for a review. But later, the replays showed the ball was crashing in the off-stump.
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KL Rahul's DRS blunder leaves Rohit Sharma fuming with anger
Rahul's major DRS blunder left the India skipper fuming with anger as the batter in question was Root. The miss proved to be a costly one as the former England skipper got to 69 runs and helped England post a competitive total of 304 in the end. The DRS blunder was not the first one Rahul had got wrong in the second ODI, as he even got one wrongly reviewed of Root before the Axar Patel's right one on DRS was not reviewed.
With timing ticking along and only one game left for India before the Champions Trophy, Rahul would be hoping to make a mark with bat in hand as well as behind the stumps. Rishabh Pant is already waiting in the wings, and Rahul can ill-afford to have another blunder like the DRS one.
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