Young opening batter Shubman Gill got his much-deserved place in India’s playing XI as the team management decided to drop out of form batter KL Rahul from the team for the ongoing third Test against Australia at the Holkar Stadium in Indore. Rahul, who managed scores of 20, 17 and 1 in the three innings so far, has been under the scanner for his low returns with the bat. Rahul’s exclusion from the team sparked a meme fest on social media as fans took to Twitter to address the issue.
Here’s how Twitter reacted:
Venkatesh Prasad after knowing that KL Rahul was dropped in today’s match pic.twitter.com/ULQSQX8fCs
— (@Basavachethanah) March 1, 2023
KL Rahul dropped
ICT Fans –#INDvAUS #KLRahul pic.twitter.com/IbsUtSTaD7
— TauTumhare (@TauTumhare) March 1, 2023
Shubman Gill has played only 15 balls so far and he is already past KL Rahul’s highest score in this series. #INDvAUS
Arjun (@iam_arjunk) March 1, 2023
Meanwhile:- kl Rahul..@klrahul , https://t.co/ttAa7oMXPZ
— Sneha Singh Chandel (@sneha_raj15) March 1, 2023
Shubman Gill replaces KL Rahul in 3rd test….
Venkatesh Prasad & Members: pic.twitter.com/wbdfZ009SK
— UmdarTamker (@UmdarTamker) March 1, 2023
Scenes after KL Rahul dropped from team#INDvAUS pic.twitter.com/4cCvvtodg0
— Anoop (@ianooop) March 1, 2023
After announcing India’s playing XI, India captain Rohit did not reveal the reason behind Rahul’s exclusion.
“We will have a bat first. It is a pretty good dressing room and like you said the morale is high. The guys are confident about their skills which is a good thing moving forward. We have played a lot of cricket (here) but This one (surface) is slightly different. Looks a little dry and you have to adapt your skills and be at it all the time. We are there yet (WTC final) and we have to come and win this game, we have to try and repeat the things we did in the first two Tests. It is important to stay present. We have made two changes – Gill has come in place of KL. We have rested Shami, Umesh comes in place of him,” Rohit said at the toss .
India also decided to rest pace bowler Mohammed Shami, bringing in Umesh Yadav To install game.
However, India lost five early wickets in the opening session. Matt Kuhnemann dismissed Rohit Sharma (12), Shubman Gill (21) and Shreyas Iyer (0), while Nathan Lyon got the better of Cheteshwar Pujara (1) and Ravindra Jadeja (4).
Australia also made two changes to the side that lost the second Test by six wickets in New Delhi, bringing in a pace-bowling stalwart. mitchell starc and Cameron Green instead of Pat Cummins and david warnerwho have both returned home.
(With PTI inputs)
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