"KL Rahul giving tribute to Rohit Sharma by giving early wicket" - Fans slam veteran batter for soft dismissal early on Day 1 of 5th BGT 2024-25 Test

Veteran Indian batter KL Rahul could not celebrate his return to the top as he was dismissed for a 14-ball four on Day 1 (January 3) of the fifth Test against Australia in Sydney. The 32-year-old played a half-hearted flick off Mitchell Starc to be caught at square leg and leave India a wicket down early.

Rahul opened the batting for India in the first three Tests before shifting to No.3 in the Melbourne outing. He returned to open the batting in the all-important Sydney Test with regular skipper Rohit Sharma rested after a string of low scores.

Rahul started the Australian series positively with two half-centuries in the first three Tests. However, his form has dipped, with only 28 runs at an average of under 10 in the last three innings.

Rahul's overall series numbers read 263 runs at an average of 32.87 after nine innings, a massive drop after an excellent first half of the series.

Fans on Twitter were unimpressed by Rahul's soft dismissal early in the Sydney encounter and reacted as follows:

Fans continued slamming Rahul for his soft dismissal, with one saying:

"I can understand the change in batting order but Kl Rahul does this everytime. He’ll play extremely well in his return for one or two games and then everybody goes like why you don’t have in the team more consistently. Then criminally underperform for another 5 games."

"Even if KL Rahul bats well he still averages below 35 this series. That's why after Mark Ramprakash and Graeme Hick he is 3rd worst batter to play 50+ Tests," tweeted a fan.

"KL Rahul giving tribute to Rohit sharma by giving early wicket," a fan said.

Team India in early trouble after KL Rahul's early departure

Team India's batting struggles continued as they were two down early on Day 1 of the fifth Test at Sydney. Winning the toss and batting first, KL Rahul was dismissed on the final ball of the fifth over to leave the visitors 11/1.

Rahul's opening partner, Yashasvi Jaiswal, followed two overs later as he was caught at third slip for a 26-ball 10. The back-to-back dismissals left India reeling at 17/2 in the eighth over.

Trailing 1-2 in the five-match series, India made the bold call of leaving regular skipper Rohit Sharma out for this crucial contest. Jasprit Bumrah is leading the side as they look to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy with a win.

India have begun their rebuild after the two early setbacks, with the score reading 28/2 in 11 overs and Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli battling away.