The Indian team management, headed by Rahul Dravid, have asked KL Rahul to be 'ready to keep wickets and bat in the middle order in ODIs going ahead, the Indian vice-captain revealed on Sunday after their loss to Bangladesh by one wicket. Rahul has sporadically kept wickets and batted in the middle order back in 2021 and in the first ODI against Bangladesh, he did don the big gloves apart from scoring 73 runs.
This was after Rishabh Pant was rested from the ODI series on the medical team's advice.
Rahul dropped an aerial catch of Player of the Match Mehidy Hasan Miraj, which could have ensured victory for India rather than the one-wicket defeat.
"We haven't played a lot of ODIs in the last 8-9 months but if you look at 2020-21, I have kept wickets, and I have batted at Nos 4 and 5. This is the role that team has asked me to be ready for in white-ball cricket as I have done it before," Rahul curtly replied when asked about Pant's absence.
Rahul, who by virtue of being vice-captain, is a part of the team management, however, didn't clarify whether Pant was rested because of workload management or due to some niggle.
"When it comes to Rishabh, I am not sure, to be honest, just found out today, that he is going to be released. What the reasons are, the medical team will be in a better situation to answer those questions.
Rahul didn't feel that either batters or bowlers should be held responsible for this defeat.
"That's cricket, right? You have to expect the unexpected. As long as cricket has been played, this kind of thing keeps happening. They fought very well till the end and a couple of dropped catches and that innings from Mehidy." He was personally satisfied after scoring runs on a tricky wicket. One of those days where it looked like I was timing the ball better (than others). The shots I picked, fortunately, went to the boundary, every option that I picked went my way," he said.
"Such innings give you joy as a batter as you are challenged and you put your hand up when the team requires. Ideally, we should have got 40 runs more. I did fancy 230-240 if I batted till the end or even if I could have batted till 40th over."
(With PTI inputs)
