"First step taken to enable dropping KL Rahul"- Fans react after BCCI sack opener as vice-captain for last 2 Tests of BGT 2023

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has seemingly sacked KL Rahul as vice-captain of the Indian Test cricket team. The board officially declared him as Rohit Sharma's deputy when they announced the Test squad for the first two Tests of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series last month.

After the culmination of the second Test in Delhi, they formally disclosed the squad for the last two matches. Interestingly, this time around, the BCCI did not specify the vice-captain of the Indian Test team like last time.

Here is Team India's squad for the third and fourth Test of BGT 2023:

Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat.

Alert fans quickly noticed the absence of the 'VC' designation beside KL Rahul's name and took to Twitter to voice their opinions on the matter. Here are some of the best reactions:

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"If a guy has potential, he will get that extended run"- Rohit Sharma backs KL Rahul amidst a lean patch in Tests

Speaking at a press conference after India's dominant victory in the Delhi Test, Rohit Sharma put his weight behind out-of-form batter KL Rahul. The talented Karnataka batter is in the midst of a lean run of form in Test cricket, as he has scored only 175 runs across his last six Tests at a poor average of 15.90. He has also failed to score in both the Tests of the current series (20, 17, 1).

When asked about his opening partner's recent batting form, Rohit said:

"Of late, there has been lot of talk on his batting. But for us as team management, we always look at the potential of any individual, not just KL. I have been asked in the past about lot of players. If a guy has potential, he will get that extended run."

Emphasizing on the reasons for backing KL Rahul, he added:

"It is not just about KL, but anyone. If you look at couple of hundreds, he got outside India, one of the best I have seen from KL, especially the one at the Lord's. Batting on that damp pitch in England, [that too] after losing the toss and put in to bat is never easy. He [Rahul] put a great performance there and Centurion was another one. India won both those games. That is the potential he has."

Do you agree with Rohit Sharma's views above? Sound off in the comments section.