Former India cricketer Sanjay Bangar feels that KL Rahul should have performed better with the bat during the second Test against West Indies at the Arun Jaitley stadium. This comes after Rahul got dismissed by Jomel Warrican for 38 runs even after looking in good touch at one stage. The 33-year-old completely misread the spin and was stumped by West Indies wicketkeeper Tevin Imlach.
Bangar pointed out that even though Rahul had a good start to his innings, he ended up playing multiple loose shots towards the end and eventually ended up losing his wicket.
"The way he batted at the start was typical KL Rahul, where he was allowing the ball to come to him. He is a batter who doesn't try to go onto the front foot much. He plays very well on the back foot, and that's why a lot of runs come in the square leg and fine leg region against the new ball. He played a few excellent shots off the back foot," Bangar said on Star Sports.
"We saw him using the bottom hand a little. The bottom hand didn't look good on the straight drive and the lofted on-drive, and I was feeling that something was wrong, because generally KL Rahul's aerial shots go towards the sight screen. When he thinks about his dismissal in the dressing room, he will curse himself a lot because something was wrong, due to which he couldn't convert this score into a big score," he added.
Rahul fails to maintain his form
Rahul had come into the second Test having scored a century in the previous match and looked set to play another big knock on the batter-friendly pitch in Delhi. He had provided the Men in Blue with a strong start alongside Yashasvi Jaiswal and had formed a 58-run stand. But, Rahul couldn't continue his innings for long and was dismissed after hitting five boundaries and a six in his innings.
How many runs did India score in first innings?
Meanwhile, India went on to declare their innings on 518/5 during the second session of Day 2. Yashasvi Jaiswal was the star perfformer with his incredible knock of 175 while Shubman Gill also contributed immensely with his knock of 129. The Men in Blue decided to declare their innings after the fall of Dhruv Jurel, who was sent back to the pavilion by Roston Chase for 44 runs. It remains to be seen how big of a total will West Indies manage to post in their first innings.