KL Rahul, who was once being considered as India’s next captain, has not only lost his vice-captaincy but has also been replaced in India’s T20 and Test XIs.
Former India opener Gautam Gambhir, who is also the mentor of LSG, said getting dropped from T20Is and Tests should “hurt” Rahul.
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“These things happen to every cricketer. Name one cricketer who has scored runs with the same consistency from the start to the end. And these things are good for you. These things should hurt you. If it has hurt him then it is a great thing for us. Jab aap kisi aur ko khelte hue dekhte hai, jab aap pila rahe hote hai (When you see someone else play and you are running around as a 12th man with water) it should hurt you,” Gambhir told Sports Tak.
“And you don’t need to prove it to anybody when you are leading a franchise. You have scored four-five hundreds in the IPL. But if you are not in the T20 side, not in the playing XI of the Test team then you can look at IPL as an isolated tournament or look at it as an opportunity to reinvent yourself. Can I bat the way the team wants me to and score the way entire nation expects of me? Scoring more than 600 runs in an IPL season is not important. Score 400 but those should impact your team’s performance,” he added.
KL Rahul is certain to return to the Indian XI in the three-match ODI series against Australia starting March 17.