India’s star batter KL Rahul has had a forgettable year, especially in the longest format of the game. In 8 innings, Rahul has scored just 137 runs with one fifty, averaging only 17.12. 57 of those runs were scored in the two Tests he played against Bangladesh. Even though he led the Indian cricket team to a 2-0 series whitewash against Bangladesh, there has been strong criticism of his performance as he couldn’t make any impact with the bat.
KL Rahul alongside Rohit Sharma has been team India’s mainstay opener for a while now. He impressed everyone with a stunning show against England last year in the 4-match series. However, the cricketer has been struggling to score runs and has had a disappointing year.
Meanwhile, Indian veteran keeper-batter Dinesh Karthik has issued a brutal warning to the batter with the home series against Australia around the corner. Following KL Rahul’s disappointing outing in Bangladesh, DK pointed out that the star opener has only averaged in the mid-30s, despite playing over 40 Tests, which is among the lowest in Indian Test cricket. In an interaction with Cricbuzz, DK said:
“I would give KL those couple of Test matches, but if things don’t go KL Rahul’s way… The one thing that does go against him is the fact that he has played over 40 Tests and his average is just mid-30s. That is not acceptable for an opener. That is one of the lowest among Indian players for sure, who have played 35 Test matches,”
The Indian cricket team’s next Test assignment will be a home series against Australia starting February 3 onwards. DK feels that if Rahul is not able to score big numbers in the contest, he might lose his place in the squad to young Shubman Gill. He said:
“That is something that he needs to definitely work on. That will be on his mind. If he wants to cement his place in the Test team, he needs to get a couple of hundreds against Australia. Otherwise, you can definitely see a change, with Shubman Gill doing so well,”
The Australia series will be India’s final contest in their 2021/23 WTC cycle.
