Indian team appointed KL Rahul as the acting skipper for the five-match T20I series against South Africa as regular Rohit Sharma had been given a rest. But unfortunately, KL Rahul also got ruled out of the entire series as he sustained an injury immediately before the commencement of the series against South Africa.
Recently, former Indian opener Aakash Chopra has reckoned that the hosts are missing KL Rahul, in the ongoing T20I series against Bavuma’s men. After India’s second successive defeat in the Cuttack T20I, Chopra if you are facing any opposition in the absence of senior players including the likes of Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, and Rohit Sharma, then the confidence of the confronting will be high obviously.
Opposition becomes confident when they see your senior players are missing – Chopra
“No one is saying South Africa is missing (Aiden) Markram or (Quinton) de Kock. The opposite happens when the team loses, quite a bit. When the opposition sees names like Rahul, Rohit, and Virat missing in India’s batting order, their confidence is of a different level. But when a team wins, no one misses anyone,” Chopra was quoted as saying in a video on his YouTube Channel.
Speaking of the series, then it is not going up to the expectations of the Indian team. The Rishabh Pant-led team has already lost the two consecutive T20I in the series so far. Batting first in the first T20I, the hosts posted a decent total of 211 in 20 overs. But they had to face defeat because of the poor performances from the bowling attack.
All Indian bowlers conceded runs with an economy of more than 8 runs per over in the first T20I.
Later on, in the second T20I at Cuttack, the team failed in both the departments against South Africa. Pant’s men could post only a total of 148 runs for the loss of six wickets in 20 overs. This target was chased easily by visitors with the batting heroics from Heinrich Klassen who smashed a blistering knock of 81 runs.
