Even though Venkatesh Prasad has been a consistent detractor of KL Rahul over the past few days, Aakash Chopra has been having a field day with his most recent criticism of the batter.
KL Rahul’s poor form has become a problem for more than just the Indian cricket team; it has also caused headaches for several retired cricketers. Venkatesh Prasad, on one side, wants the opening batter cut from the squad, while Aakash Chopra, on the other, supports the choice made by the club’s management. On Twitter, Prasad and Chopra argued with each other. Taking things further, Aakash Chopra responded to Prasad’s criticism with a lengthy video on his YouTube account.
It’s true that Prasad didn’t mention Shubman’s domestic telephone numbers in his article. If we’re looking at averages, we can see that in 11 innings played at home, he has a 26.3 mark. My point is that statistics aren’t the best way to evaluate Shubman Gill. As a player, he’s quite impressive. He’s a far better player than that, but judge him by the same standards as the rest.
In his 14 innings played outside of the United States, he has a batting average of 37 and has studiously avoided mentioning any Southeast Asian and North African (SENA) nations. His stats won’t look great if we simply use SENA data. Chopra claimed in a video that Bangladesh boosted the Indian cricketer’s away form.
While comparing KL Rahul’s stats to those of other players on Twitter, Prasad highlighted a select few names. The former India pacer mentioned players like Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal, Shubman Gill, and Ajinkya Rahane whom he believed to have better track records than Rahul.
Chopra, however, claimed that Prasad has ignored some statistics that don’t present as favorable a picture as he desired in order to emphasize the ones he did.
He mentioned Shikhar Dhawan’s 39 batting average while playing abroad. He omitted the SENA nations on purpose. Shikhar Dhawan has a 26 average against SENA nations. Except for New Zealand, he has not scored a century in any other SENA nation.
He specifically requested that we not view Mayank Agarwal’s 25 international average. To put it simply, I care deeply about Mayank Agarwal. Chopra responded to Prasad’s criticism by saying, “If we leave aside Mayank’s form during the previous three months, he hasn’t scored runs in the last two years, not even in first-class cricket.
“When you see such stats, you will assume that Mayank is probably not in the opening slot’s race at the time. Everyone seems to have forgotten about him. He continued, saying it was illogical to bring Mayank into the discussion.
Chopra even cautions Prasad at the end of the film from promoting any potential “agendas” or cherry-picking data to support his position.
Please don’t get your hopes up; I’m not saying KL Rahul will emulate Rohit Sharma. Do not promote any hidden agendas, if any exist. Let’s talk about the real numbers, not the ones you want to hear, he urged.
