India may have won convincingly against Bangladesh in the opening Test in Chennai on Sunday, but former India cricketer Aakash Chopra, looking back at how the game unfolded, pointed out two areas where captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Gautam Gambhir could have done differently. One of those pertained to KL Rahul, as he felt that the team management could have thought differently amid the criticism he has been facing.
In the opening innings of the match at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Rahul looked rather comfortable in his 52-ball stay, before one bad shot resulted in his dismissal for 16 runs. In the second innings, he looked confident again, scoring 22 off 19. However, Rohit declared the innings at 287/4 during his unbeaten knock.
Although the hosts won by a margin of 280 runs on Day 4, with almost five sessions in hand, Aakash, speaking on his YouTube channel following the victory, reckoned that the Rohit and Gambhir could have allowed Rahul a bit more time at the crease and probably get to his half-century knock.
He said: “One-and-a-half days were left, you have won by 280 runs, you didn’t give the follow-on as well, you were not falling short of time, there was no rain coming, so could we have allowed KL Rahul to score 60-70 runs?”
The former India opener felt that if India had batted for an extra hour on Day 3, it wouldn’t have impacted the result or any player’s workload.
“Since the option was available, you could have given him the chance, because it wouldn’t have impacted the overall result of the match. That is point one. It wouldn’t have impacted your workload management. When it was not impacting anything, if a player who was on a 19-ball 22 had played for one to one-and-a-quarter hours, it wouldn’t have impacted your health,” he added.
‘He is no Sachin Tendulkar’
Aakash then recalled former captain Rahul Dravid’s infamous declaration call when the legendary Sachin Tendulkar was on 194 in a Test match against Pakistan in Multan, back in 2004. Although he clarified that he is drawing no comparison between the two batters, Aakash felt that Rahul deserved the opportunity given that he is a pure batter who was pushed down the order at No. 6 in the line-up.
“When you turn back and see, the road looks clear. Paaji (Sachin Tendulkar) was on 194 when Rahul (Dravid) had declared in Multan. When he (Dravid) also was asked after the match, when the match got over on the fourth evening, he said he wouldn’t have declared if he had known,” Aakash said.
“I am not saying that he (Rahul) was at 195 here but he is KL Rahul and not Sachin Tendulkar. You have pushed him down to No. 6. Proper batters don’t play at No. 6. So I felt thinking about him was probably an option. They should have thought about him because it was not impacting the result of the match.”
