Aakash Chopra (Source: Twitter)
India toured Sri Lanka for a white-ball series under new Head Coach, Gautam Gambhir, as the team managed to whitewash the hosts by 3-0 in the T20I series. The 50-over assignment proved to be disastrous as the Lankan Lions bagged the series 2-0 with one tied game. Gambhir and captain Rohit Sharma have been at the receiving end of their quirky approach, especially in the batting lineup, highlighted by former India cricketer Aakash Chopra.
During the T20Is, players like Riyan Parag, Suryakumar Yadav, and Rinku Singh rolled over their arms providing the team with crucial breakthroughs. When Suryakumar and Rinku defended nine runs off 12 balls, fans lauded Gambhir for building all-rounders. But India’s unstable number four while batting in ODIs has made Chopra come hard at the management after the series loss.
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“No.4 has become a revolving door as we had a different No.4 in every game. Why do you need to push someone like KL Rahul down to No.6-7? Why don’t you fight from the front? India played KL Rahul for two games and then dropped him. It is interesting to think whether he is in their plans because from 2023 no one in the middle order has scored as many runs as him,” said Chopra on his YouTube channel.
India seems to have started brainstorming on the number four conundrum
Rahul batted predominantly at number five in the World Cup 2023 and the batter was out of the team since the marquee event. He was back for the Sri Lanka series and Washington Sundar was promoted to number four as he scored five runs in the first ODI. The second ODI saw Shivam Dube batting at the crucial position scoring a duck as India lost the game. The third ODI saw Rishabh Pant securing the spot and getting dismissed for just six runs as India lost.