Team India decided to fiddle with their batting order with KL Rahul, the best batter for India in the series, coming in at number three in the fourth Test as the visitors went with six bowling options at the MCG. That meant India had to drop a pure batter and Shubman Gill was the unfortunate casualty. The decision gave Australia’s Nathan Lyon to have a go at Rahul, sledge him.
“What did you do wrong to go down the order?” Lyon chirped at Rahul, who had just come out to bat after the fall of skipper Rohit’s wicket. Rahul continued from where he left off in Brisbane, or Adelaide or at Perth. The Indian top-order batter was his solid self and looked good to bat the session out until Pat Cummins’ seed shattered his off-stump at the stroke of tea on the second day.
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The ball moved 1.6 degrees away and let alone Rahul, the biggest of the batters would have had a problem playing that. Not just the fans, the experts on commentary on Fox Cricket as well as Channel 7 including the likes of Mark Waugh and Sunil Gavaskar were also unsure as to whether there was a requirement of change in Rahul’s batting number.
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With no Shubman Gill, captain Rohit Sharma returned to the top of the order but his form remained stagnant. Rohit has now just 22 runs to his name in four innings in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy averaging 5.5 and isn’t pulling his weight in the side as a batter, especially when someone like Shubman Gill was dropped.
Lyon’s sledge was aimed at Rahul but was also a dig at the Indian management for too much chopping and changing, especially with the pieces that were doing okay in the puzzle. With India playing three all-rounders in place of a specialist batter, the team management will hope that it pays off given India have a huge mountain in front of them with Australia posting a 474-run score.
