Dropped from the Indian Test team following his failures in the first two matches of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia, KL Rahul marked his return in the ODI series against the same opponents. The batter spearheaded India's chase of 189 runs, scoring an unbeaten 75-run knock. Rahul was also named the 'player of the match' for his heroics, and immediately fans on social media started to say 'KL Rahul is back'. India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has given a rather blunt response to those fans, suggesting 'Rahul had never left'.
KL Rahul's form has been a subject of debate on social media among fans and experts for a long time. He lost his place in the Test team to Shubman Gill after failures in the first two matches. In the ODI team, however, Rahul remains an asset who bats at the No. 5 spot and also keeps wickets.
Ashwin, in a video on his YouTube channel, countered fans' views, suggesting in ODI cricket, Rahul was never left out of the Indian team.
"Immediately after his [KL Rahul's] knock, people are like, "KL Rahul is back!" KL Rahul didn't go anywhere when it comes to ODI cricket to be back. He didn't go anywhere for us to put him down one day and then suddenly celebrate him the other day. We shouldn't do that.
"In the sporting world, we should know how to assess a player's performance correctly. If we don't do that, we will back all the wrong people and will play all the wrong people. If the people we like do something good and get trending on Twitter, we will start celebrating them and worshipping them like anything," Ashwin added.
"But if they are going through a bad patch, we will not appreciate or celebrate their value or the magnitude of what they are doing," he explained.
Ashwin also praised Rahul for taking up a difficult role at the No. 5 spot. He suggested that Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni are the only two players who made a mark for themselves by playing at the No. 5 spot for India. Now, Rahul seems to be doing that.
"KL Rahul is doing a very difficult role for India with ease. He has been a proper box office in ODIs. He has got phenomenal numbers batting at number five. Go and search if you can find anyone even close to him in terms of his numbers in ODI cricket."
"Sometimes, it is very funny, right? Consider everyone currently batting at No.5 in ODI cricket currently," Ashwin elaborated.
"There isn't even one cricketer at the moment who bats at No.5 in ODIs and has made a mark for himself because it is a very tough position to bat. Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni were the only two guys who batted mostly at No.5 in ODIs and made a mark for themselves. For Australia, it was Michael Bevan," he asserted.
source https://sports.ndtv.com/cricket/r-ashwin-gives-sharp-response-as-fans-claim-kl-rahul-is-back-3882685
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