KL Rahul's nemesis in 2018 

2018 has been a struggling period for KL Rahul in Test cricket where he has only a couple of innings to highlight. Rahul scored 420 runs at an average of just 24.7 in the ten Tests he had played in 2018. Merely a century and a half-century in 18 innings to his credit shows the poor run of a talent top order player except for a couple of innings. 61 per cent of his dismissals were either leg before wicket or bowled.

The bowlers broke through his defence to rattle the stumps seven times and lbw four times. Let's have a look at those 11 instances.

West Indies Tour of India

Second Test in Hyderabad (Oct 12-14, 2018)

The first innings of the match saw Rahul getting bowled for the seventh time in 2018. His dilemma to leave or play cost him the wicket, chopping it on to the wicket trying to withdraw from the shot in the last moment. West Indies captain Jason Holder had his first wicket of the match. Rahul's struggling stay came to an end scoring just four runs.

First Test in Rajkot (Oct 4-6, 2018)

Rahul had a shocking start after a brilliant century his last innings in England. Gabriel beat him with pace and dismissed the opener for 0 in the first over the match. Rahul's fourth LBW dismissal for the current year. The innings lasted only four balls as he fell for the lack of feet movement on a ball which angled in.

India's Tour of England

Fifth Test - Kennington Oval, London (Sep 7-11, 2018)

We saw Rahul getting bowled in both the innings by Sam Curran in the first innings and Adil Rashid in the second. Rahul was off to a good start and scored his highest score in the series before Sam Curran managed to hit the top off his off-stump with a delivery which pitched in middle and then swung away past his outside edge.

Rahul came back with his best of the series in the second innings scoring a brilliant 149. However, Adil Rashid found a way to break his defence with a ball pitching on a rough outside leg stump.

Fourth Test - Southampton (Aug 30 - Sep 2, 2018)

Stuard Broad had him on both the occasions in the fourth Test as the struggle continued in England. Rahul was on 19 when Broad delivered another beauty which moved in late to trap him leg before wicket. Broad got it better in the second one making a mess of the stumps with a ball which kept low.

Third Test - Nottingham (Aug 18-22, 2018)

The rough patch continued in the third Test too as Woakes dismissed him in the first innings and Stokes bowled him in the second. That was a top-class over from Woakes with a series of outswingers followed by a big inswinger to trap KL Rahul leg before wicket for another low score. Rahul started well in the second innings, but Stokes delivered another in-seamer which broke his defence once again.

Second Test - Lord's, London (Aug 9-12, 2018)

The King of Swing James Anderson's perfect inswinger ended Rahul's stay in the second innings of the match for another low score. With conditions much favourable to bowling, Anderson plotted the plan with a leg gully and then delivered the inswinger to have Rahul shuffling across and missing it completely. Aleem Dar had an easy decision to make in the process.

First Test - Birmingham (Aug 1-4 2018)

The debutant Sam Curran rattled the stumps as Rahul followed a delivery outside off only to drag it on to the stumps. His first outing in England came to an end in just two balls after starting with a first ball boundary.

Only Test against Afganistan - Bengaluru (Jun 14-15, 2018)

Rahul's only half-century in 2018 came in the one-off Test against Afganistan batting at number three. However, he was dismissed soon after the milestone when he tried to cut a delivery from Yamin Ahmadzai. The ball was too close to his body outside off stump and with not enough width offered, the shot resulted in the ball smashing on to the stumps. The first time his defence was broken in 2018

India's next Test series will be in Australia where more serious tougher situations await him. He may come across one of the top class pace attacks in work cricket including Mitchel Starc, Hazlewood and Pat Cummins.