The ongoing KL Rahul situation is getting mysterious, to say the least. India’s men’s senior selection committee headed by Ajit Agarkar and the team management continue to play the waiting game as suspense around the middle-order batter’s availability for the fifth and final Test vs England in Dharamsala continues.
Since complaining of pain in the right quadriceps after the Hyderabad Test, Rahul, even after reaching “90% match fitness and progressing well” is yet to be available for selection. This is nearly a month after he complained of “pain” and 16 days after he was left with just 10% to cover. The Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) February 12 media advisory suggested the experienced batter should be okay for the remaining two Tests but that hasn’t been the case.
Also Read: Iyer, Ishan Pay the Price for Ignoring Ranji Trophy
Even captain Rohit Sharma, after the post-match press conference in Rajkot, felt Rahul “should be okay” for the Ranchi Test but he continued to be unavailable. Two days after the captain’s comment, another advisory of the Indian cricket board ruled him out of the Ranchi Test but didn’t give any percentage details.
As CricketNext had reported last week, Rahul is understood to have regained match fitness but has been unsure about returning to the field. Now it’s being widely reported that he is out of the country seeking an opinion of specialists and has clearly left BCCI’s medical unit, National Cricket Academy (NCA) and the management in a weird situation.
“For me either he is fit or he is not. At the moment he is not. I am not sure about the percentage or what stage he is in. Only the medical team can confirm that. As far as we are concerned, he is not available and we are focussing on the team we have,” India batting coach Vikram Rathour had said ahead of the Ranchi Test.
Neither the BCCI nor chairman of selector Ajit Agarkar have responded to CricketNext’s multiple queries and there is no official word or advisory on Rahul’s current status. Since January 29, there have been four BCCI updates on Rahul but they have only gotten more ambiguous. As things stand, it is understood that Rahul is fit but not sure of returning to action and begs a very important question: how can BCCI allow a player to dictate the narrative on the basis of his feelings?
Had Rahul made himself available, he would have replaced out-of-form Rajat Patidar in the XI. As of February 28, the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association (MPCA) hasn’t heard anything on Rajat Patidar from the Indian cricket board and it is reliably learnt that the state, which is set to take on Vidarbha in the Ranji Trophy semi-final from March 2, wanted Patidar for the high-profile clash if he wasn’t going to play the Dharamsala fixture.
“If they weren’t going to play him in Dharamsala, we had requested them to release Rajat for the semi-final. Obviously, first priority is to play Test cricket for India but if he wasn’t going to play, we would have liked to use his services. Even coach Rahul Dravid knows the importance of the Ranji Trophy semi-final. We thought if Rahul would have come back to replace Rajat in the XI and Devdutt Padikkal already there as a substitute on the bench, it would have made sense to play Rajat in the semi-final. But now with Rahul’s return looking unlikely, Rajat could well stay with the team,” says an MPCA official.
Madhya Pradesh team took a flight this afternoon for the away fixture from March 2 and both players and MPCA officials don’t have clarity on Rajat yet.
“We haven’t been told yet so we will consider him unavailable for now. If something changes, we will act accordingly. But as of now, we haven’t been told anything,” adds the official.
The Madhya Pradesh players, without Patidar, have already checked into the team hotel and whether the right-hander takes the flight to Nagpur or Dharamsala depends on whether Rahul can cover the remaining 10% or not.
Comments
0 comment