ODI World Cup: “KL Rahul could be our first-choice wicketkeeper” -Rajkumar Sharma on KL Rahul’s ODI performance

Team India’s senior batter KL Rahul has faced strong criticism over his recent failures in Test and T20 formats. However, Rahul has consistently performed in the ODI format as a wicketkeeper batter.

Virat Kohli’s coach Rajkumar Sharma believes KL Rahul has proven himself enough as a wicketkeeper batter. Hence, he can be Team India’s first-choice wicketkeeper in the 2023 ODI World Cup.

KL Rahul has cemented his place for the ODI World Cup: Rajkumar Sharma

Rahul played a vital knock of 75 runs in the first ODI against Australia at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. He anchored the Indian innings and helped the side in defeating the Aussies by 5 wickets.

Rajkumar Sharma discussed about KL Rahul’s brilliant performance on India News. The former Delhi cricketer believes KL Rahul has almost cemented his place for the 2023 ODI World Cup after showing great temperament in the first ODI.

“As a cricketer, you don’t want to show that criticism affects you, but somewhere KL Rahul would have known that he is under scrutiny. Talks about him being dropped with a second line of players ready to take that spot would also have built pressure on him,” Rajkumar Sharma said on India News.

“But I think he has cemented his place for the World Cup and could be our first-choice wicketkeeper if Pant is unavailable,” he further mentioned about picking KL Rahul in the ODI World Cup squad.

KL Rahul was dropped after the second test against Australia. He was unable to score big in Nagpur and Delhi tests after which young opener Shubman Gill replaced him in the playing XI. While his place in the test squad was being questioned, Rahul has shown great consistency in the ODI format.

The wicketkeeper batter now gets to bat at the number 5 position in the ODI format. He has till now batted 15 times at number 5 and has amassed 651 runs with a staggering average of 54.25. In the absence of Rishabh Pant, the Men in Blue certainly need a reliable wicketkeeper batter who can bat in the middle order and KL Rahul seems to be a great contender for the spot.