'The moment you start...' - Gautam Gambhir shares his take on KL Rahul's struggles ahead of SL ODIs

On Tuesday (December 27), the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced India's T20I and ODI squad for their upcoming home series versus Sri Lanka, which gets underway on January 3. While some big names weren't part of the Hardik Pandya-led T20I squad, the ODI line-upfeatureRohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul and the likes with no mention of Shikhar Dhawan, Rishabh Pant (due to a niggle on his knee) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

Moreover, all-rounder Hardik was also promoted as the ODI vice-captain despiteRahul's presence. Ever since Rohit took over, Rahul has been his deputy across formats but a string of low scores and Hardik's rise as a leader has resulted in the former losing out on his vice-captaincy post. In the Bangladesh Tests, Rahul had scores of22, 23, 10, and 2. Even in the ODIs, he scored a majestic 73in the series opener before not doing anything significant (scoring 14 and 8respectively) in the last two games. Thus, he knows he has to remain consistent orwill lose his ODI spot as well in a World Cup year, with the mega event to be held later in 2023 in India.

Ahead of the SL ODIs, which commences on January 10, former Indian opener and Rahul's IPL franchise Lucknow Super Giants' (LSG) mentor Gautam Gambhir shared his take on the right-hander's form. "You can only control what you can control. You can't control selectors, you can't control what's going to happen in the next series. You got three ODIs against Sri Lanka. If you play that, just be in the present. That's all you can control. The moment you start to think about uncontrollable things, you're putting undue pressure on yourself,” Gambhir said inStar Sports' A Chat with Champions.

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Gambhir, the T20 and ODI World Cup medallist, further added, "If you don't perform, someone else will take your position. That's not only with Sanju or KL, it's with Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma as well. If they don't perform, you will start questioning about their positions too. That's what international cricket is about. No one is indispensable. So you got three ODIs, you bat in the middle-order, try and get those runs, because ultimately it's the performance that keeps you in the side. Not the name, not your talent."

India’s squad for Sri Lanka T20Is: Hardik Pandya (Captain), Ishan Kishan (wk), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav (VC), Deepak Hooda, Rahul Tripathi, Sanju Samson, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Harshal Patel, Umran Malik, Shivam Mavi, Mukesh Kumar.

India’s squad for Sri Lanka ODIs: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya (VC), Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umran Malik, Arshdeep Singh.