Sunil Gavaskar issues stern warning for KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer about star player's return to ODI side

KL Rahul, Sunil Gavaskar and Shreyas Iyer (Source: Twitter)

With the 20-20 World Cup 2022 done and dusted and India facing a semifinal exit to England, it was time for the Men in Blue to change formats and shift focus towards the ODIs. The auditions have begun and except for Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, no one else’s place is certain in the side.

The ODI World Cup in 2023 will be held in India for the first time since 2011 and India will be aiming to break their jinx when it comes to winning the big games in World events. Amidst a lot of discussion as to who will fill the slots in the Indian side, Sunil Gavaskar has fired a warning to Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul as he hinted at the return of a power player who could cause an upset to their hopes of making it to the World Cup squad.

It is good to have competition in the middle order- Sunil Gavaskar

“When you have someone breathing down you neck like KL Rahul will feel Shreyas Iyer is breathing down his neck which is again good for Rahul because he would want to go out there not taking any match lightly. He would want to score in every game. And both of them are outstanding fielders and KL Rahul can keep wickets which is a huge plus. Iyer can also bowl. So it is good to have these kind of competitions for No. 5 and 6 not to forget that there is a certain Hardik Pandya who is also likely to comeback in the one-day side sooner than later,” Gavaskar told Sony Sports.

India have so many options to choose from in the middle order, but one person who is likely to get the nod is Shreyas Iyer who did everything right in the ODI’s where he scored 639 runs in 15 matches at an average of 58.09 with one hundred and five fifties. In the absence of Pant, KL Rahul is batting in the middle order for India at present and also donning the gloves. Rahul scored a stroke-filled 73 off 70 balls to give a good account of himself there.

Rahul has earlier batted in the middle order for India in ODIs in 2019 and 2021 and also has scored runs for India even though he has primarily opened the innings for India. He has kept wickets in the past for the Indian T20 League franchises and also for Karnataka in domestic cricket.