'Didn't see Rishabh in dressing room. We asked, what happened?': KL Rahul opens up on Pant release from India squad

KL Rahul talked about Rishabh Pant's release and his role in the middle order after the India batter scored an impressive 73 against Bangladesh in the first ODI.

Team India faced a disappointing defeat at the hands of Bangladesh in the first ODI of the three-match series in Dhaka. The visitors were on the brink of victory when they had reduced Bangladesh to 136/9 in the 187-run chase; however, Mehidy Hasan produced a sublime effort as he remained unbeaten on 38 off 39 deliveries, eventually hitting the winning runs in a memorable win for the hosts.

KL Rahul; Rishabh Pant(AP)

India had a disappointing outing with the bat as no batter barring KL Rahul (73 off 70 balls) stepped u. Rohit Sharma (27) and Virat Kohli (9), who also made a comeback to the ODI side after being rested for the previous series against New Zealand, failed to make a mark in the game. Interestingly, Rahul, who had largely been playing in the top-order over the past few months, batted at No.5 and looked at relative ease in the position.

Rahul's role in the playing XI was confirmed after Rishabh Pant was ruled out of the series due to medical reasons. The 28-year-old India batter was later asked about his middle-order role in the game, to which Rahul responded in a rather straightforward fashion.

"We haven't played a lot of ODIs in the past 6-7 months, but if you look at 2020-2021, I've kept wickets in the one-day format and I've batted at number four and five. It's a role that the team has asked me to be ready for. When it comes to Rishabh (Pant), I'm not very aware to be honest. I just found out in the dressing room that he was being released, I don't know what the reasons are, maybe the medical team will be in a better position to answer that question," Rahul said.

"Whenever the team wants to play the role, I will play the role."

Further talking about Pant, Rahul said that the team members only came to know about the wicketkeeper's unavailability in the dressing room ahead of the match. Right after Bangladesh stand-in captain Litton Das won the toss. a release from the BCCI informed that Pant had been released, with no proper explainer. Turns out even the players don't have much idea as to what happened with Pant.

"I didn't see him in the dressing room and we asked, 'what happened?', and we found out that he was released. We had to focus on the game so we didn't ask too many questions," Rahul added.