“Secretly prayed for KL Rahul”: Venkatesh Prasad after visit to New Jersey temple with Suniel Shetty

Venkatesh Prasad shared a picture with the Bollywood actor and wrote that he "secretly prayed" for Rahul to perform well in the world cup to silence his critics

New Delhi: India’s legendary cricketer Venkatesh Prasad who has been critical of Indian batter KL Rahul’s inclusion in team India in past, had a different take this time when he met Rahul’s father-in-law and actor Suniel Shetty on Tuesday.

Prasad recently visited the Swami Narayan temple in New Jersey, US with Sunil Shetty. He shared a picture with the Bollywood actor and wrote that he “secretly prayed” for Rahul to perform well in the world cup to silence his critics.

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“Visited the Swami Narayan temple in New Jeresy with Anna. Prayed for well being of all Bharatvasis & for the Indian Team to do well in the World Cup. Also secretely prayed for KL to smash it to all corners, have a great world cup and silence his critics like me. Sab khush rahein,” Prasad wrote in his X (formerly Twitter) handle.

As the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced a strong 17-member squad for the upcoming Asia Cup 2023 on Monday, cricketer KL Rahul made a comeback to the Indian team.

Team India chief selector Ajit Agarkar said on Monday that KL Rahul is having a niggle and is expected to recover by the second or third game of the Asia Cup.

Earlier, Prasad had been critical of the Indian team management for persisting with KL Rahul to partner Rohit Sharma at the top of the innings despite a poor run of batting form.

KL Rahul has featured in 54 ODIs for India and has scored 1986 runs at an average of 45.13 and a strike rate of 86.57