Twitterati unhappy as KL Rahul spends the ODI series against Windies on bench

When KL Rahul broke into the limelight initially, many saw him as a proper Test batsman who can be a big hit for Indian cricket in the time to come. But the Karnataka batsman took his limited overs batting prowess to another level, which meant he was on the radar across all three formats of the game.

In recent times, the 26-year-old is struggling to score runs and his hopes of making it to the World Cup squad are slowly fading away. India managed to thrash Windies 3-1 in the ODI series which concluded on Thursday and in the five games that were played, Rahul was not roped into the XI even once.

Skipper Virat Kohli cannot be blamed for not having him in the XI as the opening combination is pretty settled and Ambati Rayudu deserved a shot at the number four position more than anyone else. With the Hyderabadi scoring a hundred and a fifty in the series, Shastri and Kohli have one less problem to deal with.

Doors closing for Rahul in ODIs?

This is way too early to say if the doors are closed for Rahul in ODIs, but the only position he thrives for is the opening slot, which is probably settled for the upcoming World Cup. As it stands, the young talent is only a third opening choice who will be considered in case of Shikhar Dhawan or Rohit Sharma‘s absence.

His previous stint at the number four slot didn’t pan out very well, but the Indian fans wanted to see a little more of him in action. There was a section of fans who clearly felt Rahul deserved a chance to play either as an opener or in place of Ambati Rayudu.

These few months before the World Cup are often quite tricky for the selectors and although there’s no disputing that Rahul is a fantastic player, there’s no way they can fit him into the current ODI setup. A lot of unhappy fans took to Twitter to express their grief and have demanded for Rahul to be roped into the XI in Australia.

Here are some of the reactions.

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