Aakash Chopra calls out Gautam Gambhir for poor treatment of KL Rahul

Former India National Cricket Team opening batsman Aakash Chopra was left furious after the star batsman KL Rahul was not given enough time to spend in the middle as the head coach Gautam Gambhir and skipper Rohit Sharma decided to declare the innings after taking a significant lead.

India scored 376 runs in the first innings, thanks to Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja and then they bowled out Bangladesh for 149 to take a good lead. In India's second innings, Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant smashed sensational tons, and the team declared the innings at 287/4. The visitors gave the tourists a mammoth target of 515 runs to chase, which doesn't look gettable for Bangladesh.

If he is unhappy with the decision of declaration, he should be: Aakash Chopra

Many experts criticized India's declaration on Day 3, claiming that the team should have allowed the batters to spend more time in the middle with over 2 days remaining. One of the batters who was in desperate need of game time was KL Rahul.

KL Rahul, who usually plays with a sword hanging over his neck, looked ultra-defensive in the first innings and scored a 52-ball 16. In the second innings, however, he looked better and smashed 22 runs off 19 balls before the captain and coach called the players back to the dressing room.

This made Aakash Chopra unhappy and he openly spoke about Rahul not getting a chance to play a big innings. Speaking on-air, the cricketer-turned-commentator said that the batsman deserves to be disappointed with the declaration decision of the team management.

"Aapne inse open bhi karai, aapne middle order mein bhi karaya. Ab lower-order mein bhej diya aur batting ka mauka mila toh aapne unko poora samay nahi diya. Agar wo is baat se nakhush ho toh woh hone bhi chaiye jaise mai aur aap (Saba Karim) hai," he said.

"(You made him open the innings and then asked him to become a middle-order batsman. Then, you pushed him in the lower order and when it was his turn to bat, you didn't give him enough time. If he is unhappy with the decision of declaration, he should be just like me and Saba Karim.)"

Itna sach bolne ki himmat kis kis me hai bharat jaise desh me ...

Hats off - @cricketaakash sir ...

U were spitting facts and they were felt like fire ...

More power to u

Heads held high always @klrahul
pic.twitter.com/vakwV671hL

— Harsh Pal Trehan (@harsh_hpt) September 21, 2024

India had the option to allow KL Rahul to fill his boots too. But they chose not to - Aakash Chopra

Later, Aakash Chopra shared a post on X where he highlighted how India decided against enforcing follow-on to give batters the chance to play but denied Rahul an opportunity to play a longer innings. He elaborated:

"Might be a slightly unpopular but here it is anyway— India had the option of enforcing the follow-on but it chose not to…because it was worth giving the batters another go. After all, it’s the first test of a long Test season.

"India had the option to allow Rahul (who was looking very good) to fill his boots too. But they chose not to. If runs were important for the first 5 batters, why wasn’t it the case for a pure batter batting at 6? #IndvBan."

Might be a slightly unpopular but here it is anyway—

India had the option of enforcing the follow-on but it chose not to…because it was worth giving the batters another go. After all, it’s the first test of a long Test season.

India had the option to allow Rahul (who was…

— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) September 21, 2024

Aakash Chopra didn't stop there as he also shared a video on his official YouTube channel where he talked about the unfair treatment of KL Rahul by the team management.

Chopra stated that other than KL Rahul every batter was given the opportunity to spend time in the middle. Aakash Chopra also opined that KL Rahul would be under tremendous pressure in the second Test against Bangladesh, and it wouldn't have been the case if he got to bat for a longer period in the second innings of the first Test. Aakash Chopra said:

"What are you doing with KL Rahul? There's plenty of time left in this match. There's no chance of rain either. You pushed him down the order. He didn't score runs in the first innings. You've time for everyone, but when it was his turn, you said times up. He was playing well but you declared.

"You may call me a KL Rahul fan and say I'm biased, but the truth is there was no hurry as two days are left. You should've allowed him to score 60-70 runs. When he reaches Kanpur, he will play but will be under pressure because Monkey is not off the back."

Watch: Aakash Chopra slams Indian team management