KL Rahul’s stint as Indian ODI captain did not start too well after the visitors had to suffer a 31-run defeat in the first match of the ODI series against South Africa. Rahul was also the leader of the Test side in the second match of the Test series and in that match also he had to face a defeat by 7 wickets.
Criticism and backlash
Since, the ODI defeat against the Proteas, skipper Rahul’s leadership qualities had to face a lot of backlash and his decision to not use debutant Venkatesh Iyer’s bowling prowess was criticised by many experts and former cricketers.
Now, former India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar has opened up on this issue. According to the former Indian batsman, “sometimes the captain goes out of ideas” and he also hoped that maybe things will “turn around.”
"Well, when there is a partnership, sometimes the captain goes out of ideas. I think that is what happened. This was a very good pitch to bat on. The ball was coming onto the bat quite nicely, you can play through the line," Gavaskar said on India Today.
"During that partnership, it did look as if he had run out of ideas. KL Rahul didn't know where to go. when you have your two-most experienced death-overs bowlers in Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar, you have to keep them for the last 5-6 overs. So that's where you can actually stop the opposition from running away with a big score. But these are early days of his captaincy and maybe things will turn around, let's hope for Indian cricket's sake that things turn around in the next couple of days," Gavaskar added.
New leader
While talking about Rahul’s captaincy, Gavaskar opined that one needs to “have patience” when Rahul is considered as captain.
"Rahul doesn't have much experience of captaincy. He has only captained Punjab Kings in the last two IPLs. Apart from that, in any format tournament - Ranji Trophy or List A. That's why you need to have patience when you think of him as captain. Even if you look at his captaincy in IPL, Punjab Kings haven't done anything on note in the last two years," Gavaskar explained.
