"Why can't he be dropped?"- Kapil Dev on India's vice-captain KL Rahul ahead of Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023

Legendary Indian all-rounder Kapil Dev believes that being the vice-captain of the team won't give KL Rahul an easy entry into the playing XI for the first Test against Australia to be played in Nagpur, starting on Thursday, February 9.

There has been a lot of debate about who among Rahul and Shubman Gill should open the batting for Team India with captain Rohit Sharma. Dev feels it is important for the hosts to understand what their best combination is without thinking about who the vice-captain is.

Speaking on the YouTube channel 'Uncut', here's what Kapil Dev said:

"Why can't he be dropped? There should be no such rule. You need to look at team combination, who do we need. It is not necessary. In Indian cricket, I don't think there is ever a vice-captain. Back in the day, we had a new VC in every Test match."

Kapil Dev feels KL Rahul should keep wickets if needed

Kapil Dev also gave an example of how head coach Rahul Dravid had to keep wickets during his playing days for India to satisfy the team's combination. He feels that KL Rahul should be ready to take up that role if the team demands it from him.

On this, he stated:

"He is a very matured player; I even like him consider him to be a fine batter but if he doesn't fit in the team, then let it be. The team comes first and I guess for that the captain and the management needs to take a call. Some players are lucky. Rahul Dravid too played many such matches where he was made to keep wickets."

Test squad for the first two Tests against Australia: Rohit Sharma (captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), R. Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, and Suryakumar Yadav.