Gautam Gambhir blasts KL Rahul after Lucknow’s defeat against Bangalore; photos go viral

Touted as one of the favourites to win the Indian T20 League 2022, Lucknow are out of the race to win the title. KL Rahul and Co. suffered a 14-run defeat in the Eliminator game against Bangalore on Wednesday. The bowlers were at the receiving end of some sensational batting display from Rajat Patidar and Dinesh Karthik

Advertisment

Lucknow conceded 207 runs on the board at the end of the first innings. In pursuit of the score, the franchise fell 14 runs short in the end. Quinton de Kock got out in the first over itself. KL Rahul and Deepak Hooda led a decent recovery but the former didn’t play as aggressively as he should have.

Notably, KL Rahul played till the 19^th over and had scored 79 runs in 58 balls at a strike rate of 136.21. KL Rahul didn’t take any risk till the 15^th over and the required rate kept going up. With wickets in hand, he should have changed gears but the Lucknow skipper was content with taking singles and doubles.

As a result, the other batters didn’t get time to settle down at the crease, and the pressure of the mounting strike rate led to their undoing. After the defeat, KL Rahul received backlash from the fans and the cricket pundits for trying to take the game deep and not hitting the boundaries when it was needed.

Advertisment

Lucknow’s mentor, Gautam Gambhir, too, wasn’t happy with KL Rahul’s approach during his innings. He was also seen having a long discussion with KL Rahul after the game at the ground. The picture of the Gambhir fuming at KL Rahul has been doing the rounds on social media.

While it isn’t known what exactly was Gambhir talking to KL Rahul, a lot of fans feel that Gambhir was angry at KL Rahul for not pacing his innings well and changing the gears when it was necessary.

Meanwhile, Gujarat have reached the final of the tournament and they will be playing against the winner of the Qualifier 2 on Sunday in the summit clash.