Team India vice-captain KL Rahul failed to deliver in his comeback match in the T20Is. The right-handed batter was bowled out for a golden duck by Pakistan debutant Naseem Shah at the Dubai International Stadium on Sunday (August 28).
The team management backed Rahul to play at the top of the order and made their intentions clear that he will start the innings throughout the tournament. However, the Karnataka batter once again failed to make an impact following a below-par ODI series against Zimbabwe, in which he registered scores of 1 and 30, respectively.
Fans on Twitter were completely disappointed with the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) captain and trolled him mercilessly. Here are some of the reactions:
Naseem impressed everyone on his T20I debut as he nearly dismissed senior Indian batter Virat Kohli in the same over. The ball took an outside edge of Kohli's bat, but was dropped by Fakhar Zaman at second slip.
KL Rahul failes to deliver, opening woes continue
KL Rahul's worries continued as he made his T20I comeback after a gap of over six months due to a knee injury and COVID-19.
Earlier, the Men in Blue experimented with Rishabh Pant, Suryakumar Yadav and Virat Kohli at the top of the order in KL Rahul’s absence during the recent tours of England and West Indies.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Hardik Pandya help India bowl out arch-rivals Pakistan for 147
A clinical bowling performance from the Indian bowling attack helped Rohit Sharma and Co. bowl out Pakistan for 147 in 19.5 overs. It was the first time the Indian pacers took all 10 wickets in a T20I.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar registered his career-best figures of 4/26 against Pakistan, while Hardik Pandya scalped three wickets. Arshdeep Singh and Avesh Khan shared three wickets between themselves.
Mohammad Rizwan top-scored for Pakistan with 43 runs in 42 balls. Iftikhar Ahmed looked impressive in the middle order, but was dismissed by Pandya for 28 runs off 22 balls, thereby breaking a crucial partnership.
Shahnawaz Dahani provided a late blitz of 16 runs in six balls to take Babar Azam and Co. to a respectable total of 147.
The Men in Blue will hope to start their Asia Cup 2022 campaign by avenging their 10-wicket loss to Pakistan in the 2021 T20 World Cup.
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