After having a great start to the 20-20 World Cup campaign, India locked horns with South Africa in their third match at Perth on Sunday. Indian captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to bat first. Rohit opened the innings with KL Rahul who has been struggling with the bat in the 20-20 World Cup so far.
The Indian innings started with Wayne Parnell bowling the first over to Rahul. The opener was beaten on quite a few occasions and played a few dot balls as well. He ended up playing a maiden over to put the pressure of scoring on Rohit at the other end.
The Indian captain played three dot balls as well in the next over bowled by Kagiso Rabada. Rohit finally broke the shackles and smashed a six on the fourth ball to get India off the mark. He pulled a short delivery over fine leg for a massive six.
KL Rahul further played another dot ball on the first ball of the third over. However, he lit up the stadium on the second ball of the over as he clobbered a good-length delivery over long-on for a stunning six. It seemed as if the opener has finally found his groove back and is determined to go big in the match.
However, the star batter was once again seen struggling against Lungi Ngidi as he failed to get bat on the ball. His struggling innings was finally ended on the last ball of the fifth over edging the ball straight to the first slip.
Rahul returned to the pavilion after scoring 9 off 14 balls leaving India at 26/2 after 5 overs. The innings added another failure to Rahul’s name who could only manage the scores of 4 and 9 in the first two matches of the tournament against Pakistan and Netherlands respectively.
Amid Rahul’s constant failures, there’s a wild uproar among the Indian fans to include Rishabh Pant in place of the opener. The Indian team tried Pant in the opening slot leading up to the World Cup however the gamble didn’t pay off. It will be interesting to see whether the team management will once again try the same in the tournament.
Rahul’s third consecutive failure didn’t go down well with the fans. Here’s how Twitter reacted to KL Rahul’s another disappointing performance:
#@KLRahul if you have some self respect pl give chance to others. Do some net practice then come back.
— Harvinder Chugh 0312 (@Chugh0312) October 30, 2022
Kl rahul toh pura sarkari ban chuka hai
— ?? ?? ?? (@_Marktamang) October 30, 2022
me on my birthday vs me getting ready to watch kl rahul downfall pic.twitter.com/A99ELiPA6p
— monarch (@monarchvercetti) October 30, 2022
Consistently Inconsistent @klrahul ?
— KeepitDope_Suv (@_JoshNeverStops) October 30, 2022
KL Rahul played the first over maiden with no intent of scoring, it looked like he was playing an ODI in 90s era #INDvSA eventually pressure was on Rohit Sharma again
— Helsinki (@SaifeeJuzer1) October 30, 2022
When will KL Rahul be dropped? For how long are we going to suffer because of his lack of intent? Do we really have time in PP for maiden overs? This is just absurd. #INDvSA
— Rajat Saxena ????? (@rsaxena_rajat) October 30, 2022
KL Rahul Wagon Wheel in this World Cup#INDvsSA pic.twitter.com/TV6MC5j78j
— Nishu Singh (@missrajput0) October 30, 2022
Congress Rahul future is brighter than KL Rahul. Such a looser player against strong teams.
— Rup Jyoti Boruah (@rupz_boruah) October 30, 2022
He didn’t edges this one, he gifted that catch to the slip like he was giving slip practices to the fielders. What a waste #KLRahul is
— Saurabh Garewal ?? (@garewal_saurabh) October 30, 2022
Bavuma in XI – Captaincy tax
Kl Rahul in XI – Vice Captaincy tax.— Saikrishna ????????? (@Sai__Krishna__) October 30, 2022
https://twitter.com/Z3nitsuuu_/status/1586680689235488768?s=20&t=C8pAQMhE0zlb9zwU26jrzA
KL Rahul you're not seeing Athiya ever again
— $arthak (@cteforeva) October 30, 2022
