Indian Cricket Team is currently playing South Africa in the third and final ODI of the series in Centurion. Ahead of the start of the tie, Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Punjab Kings shared a post on social media for Team India; however, they ignore KL Rahul.
Incidentally, Rahul, who led Punjab in IPL 2020 and IPL 2021, recently parted ways with the franchise. He asked the team owners not to retain him for the new season and joined the Lucknow franchise, one of the two new teams inducted in the cash-rich league to make it a 10-team affair.
Punjab Kings shared a post on their social media handles asking fans to predict India’s playing XI for the 3rd ODI. While the poster boasted the likes of Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Shreyas Iyer and Yuzvendra Chahal; the IPL team ignored the captain of the side KL Rahul.
The cricketing action heads to Cape Town next. 💫
What should #TeamIndia's Playing XI be for the final ODI? 👇#SAvIND #SaddaPunjab pic.twitter.com/CPk16aDrHx
— Punjab Kings (@PunjabKingsIPL) January 22, 2022
Meanwhile, it didn’t unnoticed and the fans took a dig at Punjab Kings for their ignorance towards their former captain KL Rahul.
Here are some reactions:
Kl Rahul not in your picture matlabi ha pbks
— Baljeet Singh (@Baljeet76682778) January 22, 2022
Arre kbhi KL ki photo bhi daal diya kro 😂
— Kaira Singh (@KhushiS40677743) January 22, 2022
unreal hate for KL 😓
— Ayush Raj Singh (@eyeyushh) January 22, 2022
pic.twitter.com/eaPFJD70mh KL fans-
— T (@onfieldumpire) January 22, 2022
kl not in pic
punjab wasa atleast in race of playoffs bcoz of kl not he not being in team you will be last always
U team management spoiled His Captaincy 🤬 @GautamGambhir Make kl rahul just like you in captaincy So that he shows his worth to everyone as a captain 🔥— captain (@ssurya99) January 22, 2022
Where is kL RAHUL pic ? 👀😂U turely shows why u are wrost admin ever , the guy who contributed half of runs for your franchise 🤣🙏& even he opt out himself from the team u should show some respect towards the guy but….😂😂
— kl RAHUL (@kLRahul23507792) January 22, 2022
Le KL Rahul fans.. pic.twitter.com/cvxHnkxVJA
— Bishal Pandey (@BishalPandey07) January 22, 2022
Sunil Gavaskar questions KL Rahul’s ascendancy to captaincy
The former Indian captain has lambasted India’s stand-in captain KL Rahul’s captaincy in the ongoing ODI series against South Africa. The 72-year-old pointed out that Rahul looked out of ideas every time South Africa built a good partnership.
“Well, when there is a partnership, sometimes the captain goes out of ideas. I think that is what happened. This was a very good pitch to bat on. The ball was coming onto the bat quite nicely, you can play through the line,” Gavaskar said on India Today
“During that partnership, it did look as if he had run out of ideas. KL Rahul didn’t know where to go. When you have your two-most experienced death-overs bowlers in Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar, you have to keep them for the last 5-6 overs.
“So that’s where you can actually stop the opposition from running away with a big score. But these are early days of his captaincy and maybe things will turn around, let’s hope for Indian cricket’s sake that things turn around in the next couple of days,” he added.
