'With all due respect to Rahul, it is time to play Shubman' - Krishnamachari Srikkanth opines ahead of 3rd Test

Former India cricketer Krishnamachari Srikkanth while joining the raging debate around struggling KL Rahul's place in the Test side has batted for Shubman Gill as India's Test opener in the current Indian squad for the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023.

Presently, KL Rahul's struggling form is the hot topic of discussion. In the current Test series, the 30-year-old is yet to play a significant or match defining innings. While the Indian management contiues to back the opener, multiple cricket pundits and former cricketers are at loggerheads over seeing beyond KL Rahul as India's openers. And Krishnamachari Srikkanth is one such veteran.

“I have tremendous admiration for the class of Rahul, in fact I call him Rolls Royce Rahul… but it is just not happening for him at the moment. If I were the chairman of selectors, I would have gone up to him and told him to take a break for a while,” the 63-year-old said while speaking to the Times of India.

The former World Cup winner stated that he was extremely appreciative of KL Rahul's batting style and his past exploits for India on international soil. However, referring to the Rahul's present form, Srikanth stated that he was studying the 30-year-old from the point of view of a selector, and from that position he feels that it was the right time to look beyond Rahul.

He backed the inclusion of another talented cricketer Shubman Gill as opening batter to partner Rohit Sharma for the third Test, given the blazing form the former is in right now. According to Srikanth, there wasn't anything wrong with Rahul's batting technique but perhaps "a major mental blockage from which Rahul is suffereing from". The veteran cricketer cum commentator advised Rahul to take sometime off from cricket to regain his form. 

“...But with all due respect to Rahul, it is time to play Shubman. You can’t keep a player waiting when he is in the form of his life,” Srikanth added.

For a better experience: Download the CricTracker app from the IOS App Store and Google Play Store