'India cannot play Bazball' - Indian Cricketer disagrees with KL Rahul's statement of playing aggressive cricket

KL Rahul (Source: Twitter)

Team India finished Day 1 of the first Test against Bangladesh on 278/6 at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, Chattogram. After opting to bat first, India were reeling at 112/4 at one stage. They were rescued by Cheteshwar Pujara and Shreyas Iyer who stitched a 149-run partnership for the fifth wicket. Ahead of the first Test, stand-in captain KL Rahul had said that India will play aggressive cricket in the Test series. However, wicketkeeper batter Dinesh Karthik feels that India cannot play England’s ‘Bazball’ style of cricket.

“There is a Test championship (final) qualification so we will also have to be aggressive. We know where we stand and what we need to do to qualify for the final," Rahul had said during the media interaction.

Reacting to Rahul’s statement, Karthik said that it’s difficult for India to play an aggressive brand of cricket as the pitch at Chattogram is slow, which makes it difficult for the batters to show their attacking side.

“For me, as I said, it is very evident that these are kind of wickets that sometimes end up not producing a result. As the Test match carries on, the wear and tear makes it slow. If the quality of the batsmanship is not great, you will end up seeing batsmen make mistakes. If your temperament is strong, you won't need a great technique to stay at the wicket. For starters, India cannot play the Bazball kind of cricket because right now, it's not a part of our DNA to do something like that," said Karthik on Cricbuzz.

They want to press the accelerator and push the scoring rate : Dinesh Karthik

"For KL Rahul to come out and say that they will play aggressive cricket basically means that they want to make a match out of it and get a result, knowing that the WTC final is around the corner and these two games become critical. They want to press the accelerator and push the scoring rate. They couldn't do it today because the wicket is slow, and you have to bring a different tempo altogether and that will require a few players who bat that way," he added.

India are currently ranked fourth on the WTC Points table, having won six of their 12 matches with a points percentage of 52.08. On the other hand, Bangladesh are in last place with eight defeats from 10 matches. India will next face Australia in a four-match series at home in their last series ahead of WTC Final.