IPL 2019: Will Rajasthan hand Shreyas Gopal the captaincy?

Shreyas Gopal

Three dimensional seems to be the in-thing these days as far as cricketers are concerned. The latest has to do with Steve Smith on Shreyas Gopal, the lad who, allowed to bowl only one over in the rain-hit game reduced to a five-over contest at the Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Tuesday night, went on to pick a hat-trick that included the wickets of Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers.

To boast further, he bowled in the Powerplay. RCB scored 62-7 in their five overs and RR were 41-1 in 3.2 overs when the rains came back resulting in the teams sharing the points. Smith had gone ga-ga over Gopal during his pre-match media conference on Monday, praising not just his leg-spin but also his batting and fielding. So why not add the fourth dimension was the question put to Smith just as he was leaving the press conference room.

Tuesday's match was Smith's final game of the season and he had to hand over the captaincy to someone, which had become his after Ajinkya Rahane had been relieved of the reigns. Informally asked if Gopal, the presently all-conquering RR player and a cool and calm character at most times, would be given a go at the captaincy for their final league stage game, Smith was clearly taken aback by the unexpected suggestion and a typical shrug of the shoulders followed.

Of course, a RR official quickly intervened to say these things would be discussed by the team management at the right time. Gopal turned up at the post match conference of the rain-hit match where no such suggestion was made to him. Instead, he was asked to explain how he kept on dismissing two of the world's best batsmen, Kohli and De Villiers, almost every time he bowls to them.

The modest and shy person that he is, Gopal didn't want to make much of it. "Obviously, I am always a lot more nervous against them than they will ever be against me," he said. "But it feels good to take those wickets," was all he would admit. Sitting pretty with 18 wickets this season from 13 games, this after his bowling skills were not fully used in the initial games, Gopal said he didn't do anything different while preparing for this season's IPL.

Also Read: IPL 2019: Match between RR and RCB abandoned

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