[Watch] KL Rahul, Dhruv Jurel, and others enjoy at Cottesloe Beach ahead of 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy

Indian batter KL Rahul took to social media on Monday, November 18, to share a video of himself enjoying some time at Cottesloe Beach in Western Australia with teammates Dhruv Jurel, Prasidh Krishna and Devdutt Padikkal. This comes ahead of the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT), which begins on November 22 in Perth.

The series is crucial for India’s chances of qualifying for the World Test Championship (WTC) final. To secure direct qualification, the visitors must win 4-0. Ahead of the high-stakes series, several Indian players took the opportunity to relax and unwind at the beach.

KL Rahul shared the video on Instagram, captioning it:

“Beach day with the boys.”

All four cricketers were part of the India A team for the second unofficial Test against Australia A. KL Rahul had a disappointing outing, scoring just 14 runs, while Devdutt Padikkal contributed 27 runs across two innings.

Dhruv Jurel was the standout performer, with scores of 80 and 68 in the two innings. Meanwhile, Prasidh Krishna impressed with the ball, taking six wickets in the match, which was won by Australia A by six wickets.

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“He has to speak to himself and say, just put everything behind” - Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly on KL Rahul

Former cricketer Sourav Ganguly, meanwhile, has pointed out that the Karnataka cricketer KL Rahul appears to be lacking confidence, which he believes is affecting his batting. Ganguly further added that a player cannot expect to be selected for the team if they are not performing well.

Recently, the 32-year-old was dropped from the last two Tests against New Zealand after scoring 0 and 12 in the first Test.

Speaking to Revsportz, Ganguly stated:

“Yeah, confidence. He has to speak to himself. He has to speak to himself and say, just put everything behind. Ups and downs are part and parcel of sports. Confidence will go up and down. You have to bring it back by working hard in the nets. I know he has gone through a lot. Lucknow Super Giants have released him.”

"In and out of the team, he is seeing young players play well in T20s. You see what they have done in South Africa. He has to change and cannot keep playing the same way and expect to be picked all the time, because somebody else will come and get picked. So, I think he has got to sit with himself and get away from everything, all his friends and family, team and IPL owners, auctions and self-discover," he added.

Rahul has a modest record in Australia, having scored only 187 runs in five matches, including one century.