"Why Thinking About Next Youngster?": Rahul Hits Out At 'Decision Makers'

Team India has rolled into a new chapter in Test cricket, with Shubman Gill being made the side’s captain, while Rishabh Pant takes the role of his deputy. The transition comes after the retirement of stalwarts like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Ravichandran Ashwin. The Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee, in a press conference on Saturday, made it clear that the focus is to groom the next generation. Though another veteran India batter, KL Rahul, is part of the Test squad, he isn’t entirely onboard with the rush to groom the next generation of talent.

In a conversation with Nasser Hussain on Sky Cricket, Rahul shared the pressure of having to prove himself time and again. While the wicket-keeper batter categorically said that he doesn’t mind doing that, as it’s part of an athlete’s life, things get tough when the ‘decision-makers’ forget what a player did in recent outings.

“I don’t mind having to prove himself. I think that’s how sports go. You never settle. And it’s just not for me, it’s for every person who plays a sport. You have to always perform, every tournament, every game, and that’s the challenge of being an international athlete. I see the same amount of competition for English, Aussie, or Kiwi players,” Rahul said.

“That’s not what’s hard. The hard part is that people who make decisions seem to forget what a player has done in the recent tournament. That has been a little bit of a challenge for me,” he further said.

As Rahul’s Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign concludes, he isn’t entirely sure when India’s next ODI assignment is going to be. The 33-year-old feels extensive gaps between assignments trigger talks of ‘groom the next generation’ out of the blue, much to his disappointment.

“I don’t know when the next ODI series will be, but by the time the English summer gets over, which could be about five (three) months, you see people writing and commenting that we need to look for players for the 2027 World Cup or the next World Cup after. And sometimes, as a player, you sit back and think, ‘why should there be a change when something’s working for you? Why are you thinking about the next youngster already?'” Rahul said.

“But I don’t think it’s a challenge for me. It’s for everybody else.”