India should have given KL Rahul one more game: Gautam Gambhir

KL Rahul has been going through a pretty poor run of form of late. He registered scores of 1, 0, 0, and 14 in the first four T20Is of the five-match series against England and that’s why he was dropped for the decider to make room for an extra bowler.

The right-handed batsman was making a comeback from injury and thus he failed to replicate the same form that he showed in the IPL last year. However, India couldn’t afford to back him anymore with the series on the line. Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma opened in the final T20I, which India won by 36 runs to register a 3-2 win in the series.

However, former India batsman Gautam Gambhir believes that India should have backed Rahul more as he has been an excellent asset for them in T20Is over the years.”Dropping anyone will not do them any favour. He (Rahul) will have to play three ODIs. Someone is out of form, the only way you can bring them back is by giving them more opportunities,” Gambhir was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo.

“Because when you are sitting on the bench, it is not a good feeling. Because you know you have been dropped, and that feeling is not the best feeling,” he added.

Gambhir, though, also agreed that India’s strategy of playing an extra bowler was right.

“India went with six bowlers, I completely agree with that. Because India were always one bowler short. And the only way that could have been done was by dropping KL Rahul and picking a bowler. And that’s what they have done,” he further added.

“But ideally, they should have given him another game. But they could not have fit him with six bowlers, had KL Rahul played this game.”

Rahul has played a total of 49 T20Is for India and he has scored 1557 runs in them, at an excellent average of 39.92 and a strike-rate of 142.19. His average used to be close to fifty once but it has taken a massive hit owing to his recent failures with the bat.