India is a country of rich cricketing heritage, with many toiling day and day out to fulfill their dream of being a part of Indian cricket team one day. Only a handful turns out to lucky enough to get a chance to represent India.
For many of them, the dream remains only a dream for there are limited openings and many applicants.
KL Rahul getting a sort of backing from the team management is fast becoming a bone of contention for many who think Rahul getting this kind of favouritism is not justified. And they surely have solid reasons to think on those lines.
KL Rahul was given the honour of being the vice captain of the Indian cricket test team on the tour of South Africa in 2021.
Rahul kicked off that tour with a century in the Boxing Day Test match.
That was Rahul’s last test century in what has now been over a year. Also, it’s not as if Rahul after that Test hundred looked in good touch without getting a decent score.
Honestly, watching Kl Rahul bat gives a clear idea that here is a batsman who is completely out of synch and would be much better with a little time away from the game.
With only one 50+ score in the last 6 test matches, the inevitable was meant to happen. KL Rahul’s form has gone from bad to worse in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar trophy against Australia, the out of form batsmen has been sacked as the vice captain but surprisingly still remains that part of the squad for the last 2 Test matches as a specialist batsmen.
With Rahul struggling for runs, there could be a case that Shubhman Gill, who is in a red-hot form coming into this Border Gavaskar Test series, might be given an opportunity in the 3rd Test match. KL Rahul has struggled for runs since becoming the vice captain and should he play that 3rd Test, it will be after more then a year that he will play without being part of the leadership group.
Even at the start of the ongoing Border Gavaskar trophy, there was a lot of apprehension attached to KL Rahul getting the coveted opening spot with Rohit Sharma as Shubhman gill has been in the form of his life in 2023.
But the team management backed Rahul.
The backing hasn’t quite worked and Rahul has scores of 20, 17 and 1 across three innings.
So why this kind of a fascination for one particular player who even after playing for close to 47 Test matches could only muster a below par average of 33.44 per innings.
Is a Mayank Agarwal or a Shikhar Dhawan just not good enough anymore?
Let’s try to decode the numbers of these 3 openers to get a better picture.
KL Rahul has 81 test innings to his credit and has crossed the 50 run mark only 20 times, which includes seven hundreds and 13 half centuries. A fifty plus knock in every 4 innings.
So, nothing to be gung ho about.
Mayank Agarwal has 36 innings to his credit with 10 knocks of over 50, with 4 hundreds and 6 half centuries.
Scoring a 50 plus knock every 3.6 innings.
Shikhar dhawan, it ought to be registered, played his last Test match in 2018. With 58 innings to his credit along with 7 hundreds and 5 fifties including 12 fifty plus scores in 58 innings, roughly one 50 plus knock in every 5 innings.
So, what are we missing?
Agarwal was dropped without giving him a long haul. Ditto for Dhawan who was axed after 8 failures in England where he got start in 4 innings.
But in the case of Rahul, there have been too many failures. Since his last hundred at the centurion in the boxing day Test, Rahul has played 11 innings and scored one 50 but endured 10 consecutive failures, not managing to go beyond 25.
With Shubhman gill made to wait at a time when he is in the groove, Rahul, having been stripped of his vice captaincy might or might not get one last shot at redemption in Indore.
But one thing is clear, there will be many dreamy eyes that will be wanting a similar backing from the management if and when there time to don the national color comes.
