Jennifer
The local boy of Ranchi, Rahul Tripathi made his third T20I appearance while playing for India in the first of the three-match T20I series against New Zealand. Although the 32-year-old couldn’t replicate his performance of the last match and fell prey to Jacob Duffy on a 6-ball duck.
Tripathi’s poor outing raised the eyebrows of Indian cricket fans. The fans couldn’t keep calm and lashed out at the performance of Rahul Tripathi. They took to Twitter to slam the batter for poor technique and intent while playing at number 3 for the men in blue in the shortest format of the game.
Here’s how fans reacted:
Rahul Tripathi the way he played compelled us to think that , Is he a batsman or a joker ?
Same way Arshdeep is also a joker Who has got nothing to do with bowling..— Dharam (@Dharram03) January 27, 2023
Rahul tripathi fanbois be like pic.twitter.com/wgsrdD3Az2
— Manu (@Manu_k333) January 27, 2023
Nothing just Rahul Tripathi is saving his batting talent for IPL and @SunRisers 😬
— Sanam Patel (@patelsanam) January 27, 2023
Khila liya Rahul tripathi bhejo abh ghr practice krni hogi ipl ki
— Dikshant (@Danny212002) January 27, 2023
Earlier before the match, the former Indian chief selector Saba Karim happened to advocate Tripathi’s place at number 3 in the batting lineup for the T20I series opener against the Kiwis.
“I want to see Rahul Tripathi get more opportunities at No. 3 because he did well in his second game. He batted at a decent strike rate. When you have such a good batter, there is no need to make too many changes,” said Karim to India News.
Speaking of the action of the first T20I between Hardik’s men and the Blackcaps, it was young Indian all-rounder Washington Sundar who made an impact with his all-round performance in the match both with the bat and the ball.
The 23-year-old first scalped two wickets by conceding only 22 runs in his quota of four overs including a spectacular catch to dismiss Kiwi batter Mark Chapman on a 4-ball duck. Later on, he amazed everyone with his outstanding batting performance by scoring 50 runs off just 28 balls with five boundaries and three sixes to his name however, his efforts ended up on the wrong side of the match.
Eventually, India fell 22 runs short to the target and lost the match by 21 runs to trail the series by 0-1. Daryl Mitchell won the ‘player of the match award for his match-defining performance in favor of the visitors.
