Former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir has hit back at KL Rahul’s critics for questioning his batting credentials amid the ongoing ODI series between India and Australia.
Talking about KL Rahul’s performance, Gautam Gambhir took an indirect dig at Venkatesh Prasad who recently criticized KL Rahul for his poor batting performance.
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“What kind of pressure? Last time we (Lucknow Super Giants) finished at No. 3 and it was a tough fight between RR and LSG. Obviously, only one team can lift the trophy. And Gujarat won the IPL, they played excellent cricket last season. And if you take a look at the performance of Lucknow in their debut season, they finished 3rd only because of the NRR. If you finish 2nd in IPL, you get 2 chances at the playoffs,” Gambhir told SportsTak.
“As far as KL Rahul is concerned, I don’t think he is under any kind of pressure. International cricket and IPL are different from each other. If you don’t perform in international cricket despite scoring 1000 runs in IPL, you will still have to deal with criticism. And that’s international cricket for you. After all, only 15 players get a chance to play for India. In IPL, more than 150 players get selected. Thus, you should not compare these two (IPL and international cricket).” Gambhir added.
Talking about Rahul’s performance in the world’s richest T20 league, Gambhir also took an indirect dig at ex-India pacer Venkatesh Prasad.
“How Rahul has fared in the IPL, he has 4-5 centuries in the tournament. And you are talking about a player who has already slammed 4-5 centuries. Even last season he scored a century against Mumbai Indians. We have so many people here. Sometimes ex-cricketers need some masala to remain active. So that’s why you criticise people. According to me, the kind of player KL is, he won’t be under any kind of pressure. You can’t win a tournament with one player. The 25 players who are inside the dressing room help you win the tournament,” Gambhir concluded.