India bulldozed Australia by six wickets in the second Test at the Arun Jaitley stadium in Delhi on Sunday (February 19). Yet again India summed up the match within three days to take a 2-0 lead of the four-match Test series. Indian bowlers looked in hurry on Day 3 as they snared nine of the Australian wickets inside the first session of the day as the visitors were bundled out for 113, thanks to Ravindra Jadeja's wizardry of 7/42. India then overhauled the lowly target with six wickets in hand as Cheteshwar Pujara, who was playing his 100th Test smashed the winning runs.
But one thing which has been constantly pestering India is KL Rahul's back-to-back flop show with the bat. The right-handed batter, who has been under scrutiny due to his consistently poor form, failed to leave a mark yet again with the bat. So far in two matches of the series against Australia, the Indian opener has scored just 38 runs in three innings while in six Tests since the start of 2022, Rahul has amassed just 175 runs in 11 innings.
Rahul has drawn a lot of flak for his poor string of scores and questions have been also raised on Team India's management as to why they are back the Karnataka batter despite the lacklustre show. Amid the call for dropping Rahul from India's squad, skipper Rohit Sharma has thrown his weight behind the star India opener.
Rohit, in the post match press conference, said that ‘talented players' like KL Rahul, suggesting those with such potential will get a long rope by the team management.
“Of late, there has been a lot of talk about his batting. For us, as team management, we always look at the potential of any individual, not just KL. I was asked in the past about a lot of players. If a guy has potential, he will get an extended run. Not just KL. If you look at the couple of hundreds he got, especially at Lord's, batting on that damp pitch. Centurion was another win. Both came in India winning both games. That's the potential he has,” Rohit said.
“Obviously, of late, there have been a lot of talks. But, from our side, it was clear that we want him to go out and play his game and do what he can do the best, that we have seen him do over the years. Of course, when you are playing on pitches like these, you need to find your method of scoring runs. As I said, different individuals are part of these teams and they will have different methods of scoring runs. Find your own methods of doing this. We are not going to look into what one individual is doing, but rather what the entire team is doing. This is an important series for us, a big one, and that's my thought on KL,” he further added.
KL Rahul performance in his last 20 Tests: 84 (vs England in Nottingham in 2021), 26, 129 (vs England at Lord's in 2021), 5, 0, 8, 17, 46, 123 (vs South Africa in Centurion in 2022), 23, 50 (vs South Africa in Johannesburg in 2022), 8, 12, 10, 22, 23, 10, 2, 20, 17, 1 (vs Australia in 2nd innings of 2nd Test in Delhi).
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