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‘No one is talking about him, which is very very surprising’

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‘No one is talking about him, which is very very surprising’

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Wednesday announced the T20I and ODI squads, which will start their home series against the West Indies on February 6. The squad has seen a number of big changes, with young spinner Ravi Bishnoi earning a maiden international call-up, while Chinese spinner Kuldeep Yadav has also returned to the side. Meanwhile, newly appointed limited super team captain Rohit Sharma is also returning after completing a full recovery from a hamstring injury.

However, while the team has seen many new and returning faces, players such as Rahul Chahar and Varun Chakravarthy are still absent. Both teams are missing experienced deputy Ravichandran Ashwin, while South African ODI members Ishan Kishan and Venkatesh Iyer are out for the three-match series against the West Indies.

Former India opener Akash Chopra noted the absentees and said no statement was made on the reasons for their absence.

“Regarding Ashwin, I don’t know. He’s reportedly out for 1.5 months, but the BCCI hasn’t released anything like that. No one’s talking about Rahul Chahar or Varun Chakravarthy. We don’t really know where these guys are. ,” Chopra said on his official YouTube channel.

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While Chopra expressed delight at the selection of Ravi Bishnoy, he insisted it was “surprising” not to see Rahul Chahal mentioned.

Speaking of the ODI team, Chopra said: “Ravi Bishnoy was the first pick. It’s very, very surprising that no one is talking about Rahul Chahar. I believe, Venkatesh Iyer was eliminated, Because he played two ODIs (in South Africa). Deepak Hooda got a chance and he offered a non-spin option. Even Ishan Kishan is no longer part of the team. It’s funny because all these guys (they don’t belonged to the team) was picked at the T20 World Cup a few months ago and I thought “Will you support them? “It doesn’t seem so.”

The former India opener further wants young Bishnoi to get chances on the wing rather than being treated “like Rahul Chahar”.

“Rahul Chahar and Varun Chakravarthy were both part of the T20 World Cup squad and now they are both sidelined. In the previous T20I series, Chahar was unavailable and said he was not suitable. But there is no talk about him anymore. Ravi Bishnoi is now the man of the month and I really hope he gets his chance and not outright like Rahul Chahar,” Chopra said.

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Complete News Source : Hindustan Times

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KL Rahul dangerously close to Laxman territory; to be perished for Sarfaraz Khan and Shubman Gill

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KL Rahul dangerously close to Laxman territory; to be perished for Sarfaraz Khan and Shubman Gill

To accommodate both Sarfaraz and Gill and stick with their five-bowler formula, a batter from the Bengaluru Test must make way. Ergo Rahul and the predicted axe

VVS Laxman went through the first half of his illustrious 15-and-a-half-year international career with the proverbial axe hanging over him. Despite his magical stroke-play and a well-founded reputation for rallying the lower order to bat above itself, he was forever the first name that sprang to the decision-makers’ minds when they had to drop someone to accommodate someone else. It wasn’t until the second half of his stint with the national team that he had ‘job security’, which automatically manifested itself in an array of glorious, match-turning knocks and earmarked him as one for a crisis.

KL Rahul is now dangerously close to approaching the Laxman territory, though at least in this instance, a case can be made out, perhaps, for why he often seems to be playing for his place. Almost a decade after his Test debut in Australia in December 2014, he has yet to nail down a permanent spot, a result of glaring inconsistency and repeated dalliances with injuries that have left him with a modest average of 33.87 from 53 Test appearances.

Unlike Laxman, who was thrust to the opener’s position for three years from 1997, successive team managements have worked overtime to create space for Rahul. He started off in the middle order in Melbourne against Australia, opened in the next Test in Sydney when he made a sparkling century, continued in that position for a good nine years – around the large pockets when either injuries or lack of form relegated him to the sidelines – and now seems to have found his calling in the middle order, where he was tried out in an almost last throw of the dice in South Africa last December.

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In his limited time at the No. 6 position, Rahul has been a revelation. On a spiteful surface in Centurion in his first innings back in the middle order, the classy right-hander made a marvellous 101 – Virat Kohli’s 38 was the next highest score – in India’s 245 all out. Two Tests later, against England in Hyderabad, he waltzed to 86 of the best until a hamstring strain kept him out of the last four Tests.

On his comeback last month against Bangladesh, Rahul showed why he is rated so highly, and therefore why he so frustrates when he chooses to shackle himself mentally, with uninhibited shot-making when India were pressing for a declaration (Chennai) and looking to make up for lost time with a frenetic batting approach (Kanpur) in the two Tests. Kanpur was especially mesmeric, 68 flowing off his bat in a mere 43 deliveries. It was the best of Rahul.

Axe hangs over Rahul’s head for India vs New Zealand 2nd Test

And yet here we are, two innings later, wondering whether he will, or should, feature in the playing XI in Pune, where India take on New Zealand in a must-win second Test from Thursday.

Shubman Gill, him of three centuries in his last six Tests, missed the Bengaluru defeat to the Kiwis with a stiff neck. Replacement batter Sarfaraz Khan made the most of own good fortune with a delectable 150, which makes it near impossible to drop him now that Gill is fully fit. To accommodate both Sarfaraz and Gill and stick with their five-bowler formula which has worked beautifully in the last few years, a batter from the Bengaluru Test must make way. Ergo Rahul and the predicted axe.

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One of the few men to have led India in all three formats internationally, Rahul didn’t help his cause with scores of 0 and 12 at his home ground, the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. In the first innings, he was strangled down leg-side by William O’Rourke while in the second, he received a peach from the same paceman operating with the second new ball and was again caught behind. Rahul was one of 11 failures in India’s first-innings 46 and one of seven wickets to fall in 93 deliveries to the second new cherry, but failures past and the logjam created by Gill’s availability have combined to identify him as the most susceptible to the axe.

It’s a cross impossible to bear, but also impossible to ignore just because it is so heavy, so overarching. Rahul is beyond gifted and makes batting appear oh-so-simple, but his struggles to embrace sustained run-making can’t be wished away. He is the eternal team man, much like his celebrated namesake also from Karnataka – both kept wickets admirably in 50-over World Cups 21 years apart, both made attractive and impactful runs during the tournament and both tasted bitter defeat at the hands of Australia in the final – but ‘eternal team man’ can sometimes be an euphemism for the ‘most dispensable’ and Rahul can be excused for thinking that those two lines have blurred beyond repair. Of course, if he is brutally honest to himself, he will acknowledge at least to himself that he too must bear culpability for the blurring of the lines.

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