IND vs AUS / BCCI announced the team, big hints – vice-captaincy snatched from KL Rahul?

IND vs AUS: The Indian team for the last two Tests and the upcoming three-match ODI series against Australia was announced by the BCCI on Sunday evening. No changes were made in the Test team, while Ravindra Jadeja returned to the ODI team, Jaydev Unadkat was also selected in this format after a decade i.e. 10 years. Apart from this, many questions were also raised on the sidelining of Sanju Samson and Sarfaraz Khan. But amidst all this, the biggest signal that came out from the board was regarding KL Rahul. In fact, KL Rahul was the vice-captain in the squad released for the first two Test matches. But the way the BCCI released the team for the last two Tests, the only question was whether BCCI has taken away the vice-captaincy from Rahul?

We are not saying that the vice-captaincy has been snatched from KL Rahul. So says the indication of the BCCI which it gave in its press release at the time of releasing the team. In the squad that was released on 13 January 2023 for the first two Tests, Vice Captain was written in front of Rahul's name. But this time the squad released for the last two Test matches on 19 February 2023 did not have the vice-captain in front of his name nor was it written in front of anyone else's name. After this the question arose whether the vice-captaincy has now been snatched from Rahul? However, nothing like this was said from the BCCI side, but if we talk about the last few times, after the ODI series against Bangladesh, when Hardik Pandya returned to the ODI team for the Sri Lanka series, even without any announcement, Rahul was given the vice-captaincy. Was snatched and given to Hardik.

That's why similar questions are being raised this time too, but there is no clarity on this. If some other things are taken into consideration, the debate is going on for some time that if he is the vice-captain, can he not be dropped from the team even after poor form? Many former cricketers like Kapil Dev and Venkatesh Prasad also gave their opinion on this. This is the reason that now when the squad for the last two Tests has come out, the way BCCI has shown the team, it may also indicate that now KL Rahul will have to prove himself. It is not a new thing when the board can do the same with Shikhar Dhawan in the back who used to captain in Rohit's absence but now there is no way for his return, so why not with Rahul?

KL Rahul's figures are very bad

Talking about KL Rahul's statistics, he is very embarrassing. Questions have been raised on his performance not only in Tests but also in white ball cricket. During the T20 World Cup 2022, questions were being raised about his maiden over playing and frequent flops. At the same time, he was also dropped from the T20 team. He played an innings of 73 runs in the ODI series against Bangladesh but could not take the team to victory. Then against Sri Lanka, he scored 64 runs in a pressure match to win. Apart from these two innings, he could not do anything special in 11 ODI innings. His performance in Tests is very poor and his last century came in December 2021 before 12 innings. After that, he has been able to score above 23 only once. This is the reason why his performance is now being questioned.