“And the torrid run continues” – Venkatesh Prasad slams KL Rahul after another failure in Border-Gavaskar Trophy

Venkatesh Prasad has hit hard at opening batter KL Rahul for his dismal form in the longer format of the game. The former India player feels that there is rigidity in the team management for backing him ahead of Shubman Gill and Sarfaraz Khan.

The statement came as Rahul departed for 17 runs in the ongoing second Test against Australia at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Saturday, February 18.

Taking to Twitter, Prasad wrote:

“And the torrid run continues. More to do with the rigidity of the management to persist with a player who just hasn’t looked the part. No top order batsman in at least the last 20 years of Indian cricket has played these many tests with such a low average.”

He continued:

“His inclusion is deliberately denying talented guys, in form guys an opportunity to be in the 11. Shikhar had a test avg of 40+, Mayank has 41+ with 2 double hundreds, Shubhman Gill is in sublime form, Sarfaraz's never ending wait.. Many domestic performances are constantly ignored.”

Venkatesh Prasad feels that KL Rahul should make way for Shubman Gill.

Rahul previously scored 20 runs in the first Test against Australia. However, Team India won the game by an innings and 132 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the four-Test series.

It’s worth mentioning that Rahul scored just 57 runs in the two-Test series in Bangladesh in December. The stand-in-skipper, however, guided Team India to a 2-0 win.

Last year, he scored 137 runs in four Tests at an average of 17.13. The right-hander is yet to score a half-century in the last 11 innings.

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“His inclusion shakes belief in justice” – Venkatesh Prasad on KL Rahul

Venkatesh Prasad feels that KL Rahul is not even amongst the 10 best Indian openers in Tests but is given enough opportunities to succeed.

On this, he wrote:

“As per me, he is currently not amongst the current 10 best opener’s in India but is being given endless chances. Guys like Kuldeep Yadav put in man of the match performances and next game are dropped with theories like Horses for courses. In any course, KL is not a horse. Sad.”

He added:

“His inclusion shakes belief in Justice. SS Das had great potential, so did S Ramesh, both averaged 38+ but did not get beyond 23 test matches. Rahul’s consistent inclusion gives an impression of lack of batting talent in India which isn’t true. Last 5 years his avg is below 27 in 47 innings.”

Venkatesh Prasad feels that KL Rahul is not even among the top-10 India openers in Tests.

Rahul will look to score big in the second innings to avoid losing his place in the playing XI in the third Test in Indore.

As far as the match is concerned, Team India are 222/7 after 74 overs, with Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel at the crease.

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