Former Indian pacer Venkatesh Prasad has not been this angry since he dismissed Pakistan opener Aamer Sohail in 1996 World Cup encounter. Prasad has been criticising KL Rahul whose lean patch in Test cricket has continued in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy. As Rahul got out for a single-digit score in run chase of 115 against Australia on February 19, head coach Rahul Dravid backed him and said that he is “one of our most successful overseas openers”. Prasad did not agree with Dravid’s statement and tweeted out Indian opener’s overseas statistics.
Prasad tweeted: “There is a view that KL Rahul has an outstanding overseas Test record. But stats speak otherwise. He has a test avg of 30 overseas in 56 innings. He has scored 6 overseas centuries but followed it up with a string of low scores that’s why averaging 30. Let’s look at a few others”.
The 53-year-old then shared statistics of Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal and Shubman Gill. He also shared out-of-favour Ajinkya Rahane's numbers citing his overseas record. While Rahul has six centuries away from home, he has scored 1,719 runs from 56 innings at an average of 30.69.
"I think he needs to trust his processes. This is just a phase, he has been one of our most successful overseas openers. He’s got hundreds in South Africa and England, we’ll continue to back him. I believe he has the quality and class to come out of this. It is great working with this unit, managing formats is the most difficult part. But there’s not a lot of technical coaching, just simple conversations and challenging them, and giving them a pat on the back when they do well," Dravid had told broadcasters after India’s six-wicket win against Pat Cummins-led side at Arun Jaitley Stadium.
On February 19, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) also announced India's squad for the remaining Test squad where Rahul has been removed as vice-captain. Prasad feels Indore will be his best chance to regain form and silence critics like him. In case Rahul’s dismal run continued at Indore, Prasad feels that the 30-year-old should go and play county cricket to earn a place in the side.
