KL Rahul Will Have To Wait, Aakash Chopra Backs Ishan Kishan Ahead Of Super 4 Clash vs Pakistan

The two Asian giants will meet each other at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on September 10, Sunday.

New Delhi: Former Indian opener Aakash Chopra backs wicketkeeper batter Ishan Kishan ahead of Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) captain KL Rahul, and Chopra wants India to stick with Ishan Kishan ahead of Rahul ahead of the crucial encounter in the Asia Cup 2023 Super Four clash against Pakistan.

The two Asian giants will meet each other at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on September 10, Sunday. After returning from a niggle, wicketkeeper-batsman KL Rahul has finally joined the Rohit Sharma-led squad in the Asia Cup 2023 in Colombo on Thursday, September 7.

Despite KL Rahul not being available for the Men in Blue’s first two group stage games against Pakistan and Nepal due to a niggle, the Mumbai Indians (MI) star batter scored 81 runs off 82 balls against the Babar Azam-led side in the Group A game.

In the latest video shared on his YouTube channel, the former Indian opener has stated that KL Rahul needs to be given an opportunity, but he wants the LSG skipper to wait for a while. Aakash Chopra said “The question will be whether Ishan Kishan or KL Rahul will play. Ideally, if you have kept KL Rahul in the provisional squad for the World Cup, at some stage you have to play him, so you can play him now.”

“However, can you drop Ishan Kishan? You cannot do it now. KL Rahul will have to wait for now because I am not going to touch either Shreyas Iyer or Ishan Kishan in this match, and I am not going to say anything about Hardik Pandya as well,” Aakash Chopra added

Pakistan Squad: Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Agha Salman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Faheem Ashraf, Mohammad Haris, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Abdullah Shafique, Saud Shakeel, Usama Mir

India Squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan (wk), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Axar Patel, Suryakumar Yadav, Prasidh Krishna, Tilak Varma, Mohammed Shami