England vs India: KL Rahul doesn't know why he was left out of the team for the 3rd ODI

The England vs India, 3rd ODI at Leeds in Headingley got underway with some controversy. Eoin Morgan won the toss and asked Team India to bat first. While the hosts made one forced change adding James Vince for Jason Roy the Indians replaced three players from the previous ODI at Lord’s. KL Rahul, Siddarth Kaul and Umesh Yadav were left out of the team and Dinesh Karthik, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Shardul Thakur included in their place.

Kohli called Karthik’s inclusion a tactical decision and the two bowlers were included to make sure all their pacers got a game. There was a lot of noise on Rahul’s exclusion from the XI. He was unbeaten in the first ODI and got out for a nought in the 2nd, however, the batsman is in the best form of his life at the moment and it wasn’t fair on him to be dropped.

Rahul doesn’t know the reason

As the game got underway it was revealed that Rahul didn’t know why he wasn’t included in the team for the third ODI. BBC Test Match Special’s Charles Dagnall wrote- “We asked KL Rahul why he had been left out and he said he didn’t know.”

Skipper Kohli at the toss said they would’ve wanted to bat first as well and then hope his spinners come into play in the second half of the match.

“We wanted to bat first anyway. Not much grass on it, so we expect the spinners to come into play in the second half. Looks fairly dry and it might break down a little. Bhuvi and Thakur come in for Umesh and Kaul. Rahul misses out for Karthik.”

He remarked that DK has been in remarkable form and does well at No.4 the spot that has been a problem for the team in the last one year or so. Kohli called him a versatile batsman who can improvise if the need be.

“DK was a tactical change and the other two because they haven’t got a game yet. Karthik has done well in that spot and we wanted a guy in the middle overs who can be versatile and improvise a little,” Kohli said.

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