After Hardik Pandya was ruled out due to an ankle injury, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) named KL Rahul as the Indian team’s vice-captain for the present Cricket World Cup.
On Saturday morning, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced that Pandya has been ruled out of the World Cup. The all-rounder, who was named vice-captain before the World Cup, had missed several games after suffering an injury against Bangladesh. With Pandya ruled out for the remainder of the tournament, the senior selection committee opted to choose Rahul as Rohit Sharma’s replacement.
“The BCCI has named KL Rahul as the Indian team’s vice-captain for the remainder of the World Cup.” “The chairman of the selection committee, Ajit Agarkar, who is travelling with the team, informed him on Saturday morning,” a BCCI official told The Indian Express.
Rahul, who previously attended bowlers meetings as a specialist wicket-keeper, will now attend all bowlers and batters team meetings as vice-captain and will be consulted by team management on all crucial decisions.
According to sources, one of the reasons the selection committee picked him over pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah is because Rahul, as a wicket-keeper, has a greater awareness of what is going on throughout the game.
Rahul has been outstanding behind the stumps in this World Cup. During a recent press conference, he stated that he has become more “thick-skinned” since beginning to seek professional help to block out “outside noise.” He also disclosed that he had followed in the footsteps of skipper Rohit by not limiting his use of social media in recent months.
“I’ve worked very hard on this. I attempted to address it. For a long time, I believed outside noise wouldn’t bother me, but in the last year or so, it has,” Rahul told reporters in Lucknow.
“I made an effort to work on that side. Mentally, you must become more tougher and thicker-skinned. So sure, being away from the game certainly helped me. There are professionals, batting specialists, bowling specialists, and specialist mental coaches that you can hire and engage with if you believe it will benefit you. So I tried a little bit of everything,” he explained.
