India vs Australia: 'I Call Him Rolls Royce Rahul...But it's Time to Play Shubman Gill'

The form of KL Rahul has been a red-hot topic for debate with the Indian team management backing the top-order batter publicly while former players trading barbs on social media on whether the batter deserves the severe scrutiny that he’s been subjected to in recent times. Interestingly, Rahul’s form has grabbed the limelight despite Indian cricket team’s utter dominance over world’s top-ranked Test team Australia in the ongoing four-match series at home.

There’s some time before the third Test gets underway in Indore, enough for the Indian team management to mull over whether Rahul deserves one last chance before being dropped or if they’ve had enough. Former India batter Krishnamachari Srikkanth says had he been the chairman of selectors, he would advise the under-fire cricketer to take a break.

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“I have tremendous admiration for the class of Rahul, in fact I call him Rolls Royce Rahul… but it is just not happening for him at the moment. If I was the chairman of selectors, I would have gone up to him and told him to take a break for a while,” Srikkanth told the Times of India.

The 30-year-old Rahul has scored 38 runs across three innings of the Border Gavaskar Trophy even when someone like Shubman Gill continues to warm the benches despite being in superb form, across formats.

Srikkanth, a world cup winner, says that while Rahul’s game doesn’t lack anything, his non-performance is more of a mental issue and that the time has come to play Gill.

“I cannot pinpoint a technical deficiency in his game at the moment. I think this is more mental and all Rahul needs to do is take a break and sort his mind out. There’s no reason why he can’t come back all guns blazing,” Srikkanth said.

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“But with all due respect to Rahul, it is time to play Shubman. You can’t keep a player waiting when he is in the form of his life,” he added.

India have a 2-0 lead and will be hoping to seal the series in Indore where the third Test will get underway from March 1.

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