Twitter in disbelief as Virat Kohli axes KL Rahul for the decider

The third and final One-Day International between India and England is all set to get underway at Headingley in Leeds. The hosts have won the toss and opted to bowl first as James Vince replaced Jason Roy who got injured in the last game. However, many were in shock as KL Rahul was dropped for the decider from the Indian team as the visitors included Dinesh Karthik to bat at number 4.

Rahul was the star player for the Men in Blue in the first T20I as he began his England tour with a scintillating ton. He scored an unbeaten knock of 101 runs off 54 deliveries while chasing the total of runs at the Old Trafford. He was so sublime in his approach and had justified his selection for the tour. Moreover, he was going through a purple patch with the bat and was making most of it.

Twitter unhappy

Unfortunately, KL Rahul couldn’t continue in the same vein in the next games and has not contributed much with the bat. As far as the ODI series is concerned, he didn’t get much time to bat at the Trent Bridge and shelved the opportunity to get his team over the line in the second match by bagging a duck.

Team India is struggling to find a proper number 4 batsman ahead of the World Cup and the team management decided to give an opportunity to Karthik in the decider which Virat Kohli termed as the ‘tactical decision’ at the toss. Rahul should’ve got one more chance to prove himself in the middle-order but with the series at stake, the visitors might have axed him.

Twitterati was not pleased at all with him being benched and lashed out at the captain Kohli. They felt bad for the in-form Rahul and termed him ‘unlucky’ to be left out in the crunch game.

Here’s how Twitter reacted to his axing:

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