After a hectic 5 match test series against Australia, KL Rahul wanted some rest in the white ball cricket before the Champions Trophy. But his request is most probably to be dismissed by the selection committee.
India will play 5 T20s and 3 ODIs which will start from January 22. The ODIs will kick start from February 6 and will end on February 12. The chances of Rahul to be picked in T20s is highly less but in the 50-over format he is considered to be the keeper batter of the team surpassing the chances of Rishabh Pant and Sanju Samson.
The selection committee is looking forward to a perfect combination in the upcoming Champions Trophy due to which they wanted that the probable playing 11 in the upcoming ICC tournament must play the ODI series against England. This will help Ajit Agarkar (chief selector) and the other panelists to announce a proper team for the tournament.
Rahul always marked himself available in the domestic tournament whenever he is not on national duty. But this time he kept himself away, as he will not play the upcoming quarter final match against Baroda in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. He is playing for Karnataka in the domestic circuit which is currently led by his friend Mayank Agarwal.
KL has a decent series against Australia where he scored 276 runs in 10 innings with an average of 30.66. He was third in the list of Indian batters after Yashasvi Jaiswal (391 runs) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (298 runs).
Since he will be the prime for the role of keeping in the 50-over format, therefore Rishabh Pant might be the 2nd option for the team in the Champions Trophy. While it is hard to take Sanju Samson in the probable 15.
India will start their Champions Trophy journey from February 20. He is in Group A along with Pakistan, Bangladesh and New Zealand.
Profile by: espncricinfo.com