“Has Rohit Sharma-Like Abilities”: Gautam Gambhir Backs This Off-Colour India Star

The Indian cricket team is going through a great run in the Asia Cup as it became the first side to enter the Super-4 stage. With wins over Pakistan and Hong Kong, the Rohit Sharma-led side looks a confident lot. Performances from players like Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar are great positives for Team India ahead of the T20 World Cup. However, one player who has failed to fire as expected is KL Rahul. He was out for a duck in the match against Pakistan, while against Hong Kong, Rahul scored 36 off 39 balls. His slow knock came under a lot of focus, however, he has found backing from former Indian cricket team batter Gautam Gambhir.

“When he hit a six of that medium pacer (Haroon Arshad), the next ball was also in the same slot. If he could have got one more big hit, the momentum would have shifted. KL Rahul has so much ability. I will confidently say that in the Indian dressing room he has Rohit Sharma-like abilities, maybe bit more than that. He has shown that in international cricket. I hope with this 39-ball stay, he will have the confidence to play freely in the next matches,” Gautam Gambhir said in a discussion on Star Sports.

“You talked about pressure, when you are so close to the World Cup, you think of scoring big runs, so that you are on that plane to the World Cup. So, you don’t want, you don’t have runs in your bag. I had felt the same ahead of the 2011 Word Cup, during the South Africa series. The pressure that I felt to score runs in that series was more than the pressure hat I felt in other series.”

India next play on Sunday in the Super 4 against the winner of the match between Pakistan and Hong Kong.