Karachi: Speculations of a divide in the Indian cricket team, be it between two players or two different groups, have emerged from time to time. While there used to be such rumours about Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, however the two cricketers have always claimed that there is no rift between them. Now some are claiming that the former India skipper could be at odd terms with stand-in captain KL Rahul.
KL Rahul, who is India’s limited-overs vice-captain, is currently the stand-in captain in the ongoing series as regular captain Rohit Sharma made himself unavailable due to a hamstring injury. Virat Kohli, on the other hand, had recently stepped down from Test captaincy. He was sacked from ODI captaincy in December.
Former Pakistan spinner Danish Kaneria has been in the headlines of late for his bold statements. Recently, he claimed that there is some tension in the Indian dressing room. The former spinner also claimed that Virat Kohli and KL Rahul were not on good terms with each other. He further added that both the stalwarts were sitting apart from each other in the dressing room.
“We saw that the Indian dressing room was divided into two groups. KL Rahul and Virat Kohli were sitting apart. Also, Kohli wasn’t in the same mood as he used to be when he was the captain. But he’s a team man and will come back stronger,” Kaneria in a video on his YouTube channel.
Earlier, Team India lost the Test series against South Africa by 2-1. Now South Africa took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the 3-match ODI series. After opting to bat first, KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan stitched a 50-run stand before the latter was dismissed. Virat Kohli was sent back for a duck in the very next over. Rishabh Pant and Rahul then combined to revive the innings. Pant in particular was outstanding, as he fell just 15 runs short of a well-deserved maiden hundred in ODIs. The final ODI will be a dead rubber set to be played on Sunday.
“After losing the Test series, India would be eager to redeem themselves and clinch the ODI rubber. But Rahul hasn’t shown that spark until now. He had led in the Test series but wasn’t able to lift the team to break the South African partnership. At one stage, it didn’t look like the Proteas would put up 296 on the scoreboard. Lack of intensity from the Indian team helped the opposition in scoring such a total. There were also fielding lapses from the visitors,” he further said.
Kaneria feels Rahul needs to lift up the team. During India’s previous ODI series on the South African soil, spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal had combined to pick 33 wickets in six games and Kaneria expects a similar performance from the current duo of Ashwin & Chahal.
“Rahul needs to lift up captaincy and batting as well. He needs to lift the team. Also, Bhuvneshwar Kumar gave away many runs against South Africa and the Ashwin-Chahal pair didn’t look effective like the Kuldeep-Chahal duo. India didn’t use Venkatesh Iyer’s bowling services too. The next ODI will be played at the same venue and India need to learn from their mistakes. Their intensity was poor in the series opener,” Kaneria further said.
