‘It’ll be travesty if he gets dropped…': Chopra points fingers at 'underperforming main batters' in hint to Rohit Sharma
Former India opener Aakash Chopra feels it will be a 'travesty' to drop KS Bharat in the 4th Test vs Australia for lack of runs when the top-order has failed to do its job in the series.
KS Bharat has not had the best of times with the bat in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia. The young man who made his debut in the Nagpur Test after India's first-choice wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant was ruled out, has managed scores of 8, 6, 23 not out, 17 and 3 in the five innings that he played in the first three Tests. His struggles with the bat may prompt the Indian team management to hand the Test cap to Ishan Kishan, a much accomplished white-ball cricketer, in the series decider in Ahmedabad starting Thursday.
If India's practice sessions ahead of the fourth and final Test were anything to go by then Kishan does appear to have the edge over Bharat. The left-hander spent long hours in the net on Tuesday and had multiple discussions with head coach Rahul Dravid while Bharat decided to give the session a miss.
To be fair to him, none of the Indian batters barring captain Rohit Sharma and all-rounder Axar Patel, have. KL Rahul was dropped in the third Test after his string of low scores. Cheteshwar Pujara has only one fifty in the second innings of the Indore Test to show. Virat Kohli has a highest score of 44 in the series while Shreyas Iyer has not managed to cross the 30-run mark in the four opportunities that he has got so far.
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Former India opener Aakash Chopra, therefore, it will be a 'travesty' to drop Bharat for lack of runs when the top-order has failed to do its job in the series.
"KS Bharat has been nothing less than outstanding behind the stumps. Scored valuable runs in the second innings of the Delhi Test too. It will be a travesty if he gets benched for not contributing more with the bat…in a team where the main batters are underperforming…" tweeted Chopra.
On Bharat's batting, captain Rohit echoed coach Rahul Dravid's sentiments about factoring in the difficulty of batting on these tracks.
"He (Bharat) has spent a lot of time in domestic cricket, India A,... So, it will be slightly unfair to judge him on these kinds of wickets. Especially if someone is making their debut, you have got to give him enough room or innings for him to set himself up for a big score," said Rohit in defence of his younger colleague.
Rohit also spoke about the conversation he had with Bharat.
"That is important, it's something I spoke to him before the start of the series as well. 'Do not worry about what kind of pitches we will play, you will get enough time to prove yourself because these pitches are not easy'. If you want to play on pitches like that, you have got to be ready for guys failing in some of the innings as well."
He assured that as and when Ishan Kishan gets a chance, he will also get a long rope.
"You have got to back those guys, that's what we are doing with KS. KS, like I said, he's going lots of runs (in domestic cricket). Lots of experience in domestic cricket, good keeper, spoke to Ishan also. When he gets his chance, he will get a number of games. We will not drop him after playing just two. It will be unfair."
