One of the most-awaited contests of the cricket world – the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023 started yesterday (9 Feb 2023) and the first test match between India and Australia is being played at Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Nagpur.
The visitors chose to bat first after winning the toss but the Indian spinners Ravichandran Ashwin (3 wickets) and Ravindra Jadeja (3 wickets) ripped apart their batting order and the Aussies could manage only 177 runs in their first innings. The highest scorer for the team was Marnus Labuschagne who scored 49 runs before getting out and produced an important partnership of 82 runs with Steve Smith who also played a useful innings of 37 runs.
In response, skipper Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul gave a steady start to the Indian team as they stitched a partnership of 76 runs for the first wicket before KL Rahul got out for 20 runs for which he played 71 balls and his innings included only 1 four. KL Rahul hasn’t been able to perform well for quite some time now, though he has scored odd-fifties in few matches against weak teams because of which some people have started calling him a minnow basher. He is already out of India’s T20 team and the selectors have also removed him from the post of vice-captain which is a clear indication that this Border-Gavaskar Trophy can be his last chance to save his place in the Indian team.
The majority of Indian cricket fans have been demanding his ouster from the squad even before the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 but the team management has been backing him for a long time now. The skipper of the IPL team Lucknow Super Giants got trolled on Twitter for his miserable performance in the ongoing match and here are some selected reactions:
KL Rahul takes a single pic.twitter.com/NvUvwae3pb
— Div🦁 (@div_yumm) February 9, 2023
This is the stat of so called @klrahul.
his last series with AVG above 50 was in 2017-2018.
And his career Avg has been under 40 since 2018.
Never saw such Over Hyped player in history of cricket #KLRahul pic.twitter.com/Xoa6N5wI5K— 🇮🇳Kushagra (@BabaKushagra) February 10, 2023
What is the procedure to remove KL Rahul from Playing 11 😁😄 pic.twitter.com/hZq5A1gt9T
— Shital Shelke (@PurwiShelke) February 9, 2023
Sunil Shetty after seeing KL Rahul 's performance#INDvsAUS #INDvAUS #BorderGavaskarTrophy #BGT2023 pic.twitter.com/TMQmkVZWqt
— 👑Che_ಕೃಷ್ಣ🇮🇳💛❤️ (@ChekrishnaCk) February 9, 2023
Players in dressing room to KL Rahul:
#INDvAUS #INDvsAUS pic.twitter.com/wOZhdKnnXh
— Prince Pandey (@princepandey_) February 9, 2023
quite unfair to compare kl rahul with the night watchman ashwin. ashwin se humein batting mein thodi bahut expectations hoti hai.
— vishal dayama (@VishalDayama) February 10, 2023
KL Rahul#INDvAUS pic.twitter.com/EMS4P17E2j
— RVCJ Media (@RVCJ_FB) February 9, 2023
KL Rahul's inning construction. 👇https://t.co/9z6GzcCdrs
— ∆ 🏏 (@CaughtAtGully) February 9, 2023
Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul in 1st Test match be like 😅.#BorderGavaskarTrophy #INDvsAUS
#RohitSharma #KLRahul pic.twitter.com/uCsMuNP3S7
— Ashutosh Srivastava 🇮🇳 (@sri_ashutosh08) February 9, 2023
https://twitter.com/navaneedhoni92/status/1623810438214320131
Kl Rahul in every big game #INDvAUS #KLRahul𓃵 pic.twitter.com/0Ez2N3PPXW
— Harshal (@HarshalLahane1) February 9, 2023
KL Rahul in every Big Match 🤓#INDvsAUS #IndiaVsAustralia pic.twitter.com/uc1wsZDb05
— 🇮🇳 Rupen Chowdhury 🚩 (@rupen_chowdhury) February 9, 2023
Shubman Gill after watching KL Rahul's innings……#INDvsAUS pic.twitter.com/q4aTkhJUQg
— Krishna (@Atheist_Krishna) February 9, 2023
BCCI has one Son-in-Law every decade. Whatever the performance they are a must have even after monumental failures. KL Rahul is the current SIL. Previously there were guys like Ravi Shastri, Ajit Agarkar etc.
— @thotworks (@iramanians) February 10, 2023
As of now, India has taken a lead of 100 runs after scoring 277/7 in its first innings and the two batters on the crease are Ravindra Jadeja who has completed his half-century (57) and Axar Patel (17).
Will Shubman Gill get a chance in the second test match or will the team management give more chances to KL Rahul? What do you think? Let us know your views.