India vs England 2021: “He will continue to be our main player” – Virat Kohli defends KL Rahul

India vs England 2021: “He will continue to be our main player” – Virat Kohli defends KL Rahul

India succumbed to their second defeat of the T20I series against England in today’s third T20I held at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Put in to bat, India lost three early wickets with the first being that of KL Rahul who looks woefully out of form at the moment. He has registered scores of 0, 1 and 0 in the series so far and his last innings in Australia before the England series was also a duck.

With other players like Shikar Dhawan and Suryakumar Yadav who was removed today, knocking on the door for selection, Rahul is under pressure to perform soon. The opening batsman is still ranked No. 3 in the world and is India’s vice-captain in the absence of Rohit Sharma. However, his place in the team now suddenly looks in danger due to this wretched run of form that he would want to come out of.

Virat Kohli comes out in support of KL Rahul

Virat Kohli
Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli spoke at the post-match presentation following the third T20I and firstly spoke about his knock saying, “If that helps the team, then sure. You don’t want to play knocks which don’t help the team in any way. It was a bit difficult to bat against the new ball. Their bowlers were hitting good areas. We got one little partnership, it was important for me to bat deep. The case was to get set and try to get a decent total. I was going through a lean patch two days back.”

He was then asked of KL Rahul’s run of form and Kohli said, “He (KL Rahul) has been a champion player. He will continue to be one of our main players along with Rohit at the top of the order. It’s a matter of five-six balls in this format.”

The fourth T20I between India and England will take place on the 18th of March.

Also Read: India vs England 2021: WATCH – Bad call from Virat Kohli results in Rishabh Pant’s run-out