In the absence of Vira Kohli, Rohit Sharma-led team India huffed and puffed their way to a five-wicket victory against the West Indies in the first T20I of the three-match series at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Sunday.
Bowling first, the Men-in-Blue restricted the Caribbean outfit to a paltry total of 109 runs for the loss of eight in 20 overs. Chinaman spinner Kuldeep Yadav starred with the ball as he took three wickets.
Despite the best bowling efforts, the fielding was not up to mark especially that of KL Rahul. The 26-year-old batsman was guilty of a couple of embarrassing efforts.
During the West Indies innings, an embarrassing effort of KL Rahul in Khaleel Ahmed’s over caught the attention of Indian fans. On the first ball of the fourth over, Shai Hope tried to flick the ball off the backfoot to the leg-side for a single. However, the ball went straight to KL Rahul at short mid-wicket. A confusion between Hope and Shimron Hetmyer saw both batsmen running towards the non-striker’s end.
The Karnataka batsman had an easy job of lobbing the ball to Dinesh Karthik. But surprisingly Rahul threw the ball over wicket-keeper’s head. Luckily Manish Pandey came handy and take the bails off.
Here is the video of the incident:
— Hit wicket (@sukhiaatma69) November 4, 2018
Here is how Twitter reacted:
KL Rahul has been awful in the field today, first that pathetic throw which almost missed the chance of a run out and now this dropped high catch at the boundary. He needs to work on his fielding. #INDvWI
— Tejan Gupta (@superlazymutant) November 4, 2018
KL Rahul is so much better than how he played today. That god awful throw to run Shai Hope out, a drop catch and his poor batting form just doesn’t seem to end. Not the best number three option, maybe.
Hope to see him comeback strong! #INDvsWI— हर्ष जैन (@JaiinSahab) November 4, 2018
#KLRahul comical throw beaten by #WestIndies batsmen comically running to same crease… what a farce !
— Arun Ratnam (@BucksRam) November 4, 2018
That throw was so bad that even they are considering the runout made by Manish Pandey not KL Rahul😂
— Manish (@IManishh10) November 4, 2018
First an idiotic throw and now drop catch by KL Rahul and wasted 1 important review in Asia Cup. #INDvWI
— Lord Voldemort (@Smart_Ladka) November 4, 2018
KL Rahul trying hard on field to make sure that he will get to bat today.#INDvWI
— ಕೃಷ್ಣಕತೆ (@KrishnaKathe) November 4, 2018
Horrible throw by KL Rahul, who shows absolute lack of poise. Brilliant awareness by Manish Pandey to grab the throw after it went over keeper Karthik’s head. #INDvWI
— avijit ghosh (@cinemawaleghosh) November 4, 2018
That KL Rahul throw. Karnataka ignoring Tamil Nadu nicely.
*RUNS AND HIDES*
— Vinayakk (@vinayakkm) November 4, 2018
KL Rahul was the best windies player in 1st innings.. let’s see if he can contribute more by getting some Indian players run out 😂😂 #INDvWI
— Karan Singh (@KaranSingh2988) November 4, 2018