‘They criticise just to stay active…’ Gautam Gambhir hits out at ‘ex-cricketer’ over KL Rahul’s form

KL Rahul has been a topic of discussion since the Border Gavaskar Trophy earlier this year. His 75-run winning knock against Australia in the 1st ODI did give him a sigh of relief but the trolls and questions are still revolving around him. During his poor form, a rift between former Indian fast bowler Venkatesh Prasad and Indian commentator Aakash Chopra caught everyone’s attention. 

Rahul had a blasting IPL season last year, where he scored 616 runs in the debut season for the Lucknow SuperGiants (LSG). His brilliant performance throughout the season took his team to the semi-finals where they lost to Rajasthan Royals. Looking at his current performance, Gautam Gambhir, who is the mentor for LSG, was asked about Rahul’s inclusion in the team. 

Former Indian opener backed his skipper saying  “What kind of pressure? Last time we (LSG) finished at No. 3 and it was a tough fight between RR and LSG. Obviously, only one team can lift the trophy. And Gujarat won the IPL, they played excellent cricket last season. And if you take a look at the performance of Lucknow in their debut season, they finished 3rd only because of the NRR. If you finish 2nd in IPL, you get 2 chances at the playoffs,” said Gambhir while talking to Sportstak.

“As far as KL Rahul is concerned, I don’t think he is under any kind of pressure. International cricket and IPL are different from each other. If you don’t perform in international cricket despite scoring 1000 runs in IPL, you will still have to deal with criticism. And that’s international cricket for you. After all, only 15 players get a chance to play for India. In the IPL, more than 150 players get selected. Thus, you should not compare these two (IPL and international cricket).” Gambhir further added

While talking about Rahul, LSG mentor took a dig at Venkatesh prasad saying that the LSG opener has 4-5 centuries in the tournament and then there are ex-cricketers who talk about him with some masala in order to remain active and that is why they criticise players. “You can’t win a tournament with one player. The 25 players who are inside the dressing room help you win the tournament,” Gambhir concluded.