India batter KL Rahul’s poor run with the bat continued in Australia A after he was dismissed for 10 runs in the second innings of the unofficial Test against Australia A at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday. He had mustered just four runs in the first innings for a combined 14 runs in the contest.
In the first innings, Rahul was dismissed by a peach of a delivery from Scott Boland. This time, he was bowled by spinner Corey Rocchiccioli in an embarrassing fashion.
With Rohit Sharma expected to miss the first Test, at Perth from November 22, KL Rahul had emerged as a contender to open the innings. The poor string of scores doesn’t bode well for his chances. Even if he does get included in the playing XI, the lack of form isn’t a good sign before an all-important series like the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. India need to win the series 4-0 to qualify automatically for the World Test Championship (WTC) final.
Dropped from the India XI for the second and third Tests against New Zealand, KL Rahul needed to make a strong impression at the MCG to gain favour with the selectors and the think tank.
However, his inconsistency has placed him lower in the selection hierarchy. In the two Tests against Bangladesh, he scored 38 and 68, and previously, he accumulated 86 runs against England in Hyderabad. His last Test century, which was 101 runs, came against South Africa at Centurion.
Before that century, Rahul had exceeded the 25-run mark only once in his last 12 innings.
With form not favouring him, another aspect that might help him regain a spot in the XI is his historical performance in Australia. The versatile batsman, who is capable of playing both at the top of the order and in the middle, has participated in five Tests in Australia.
In these five matches, he has scored a total of 187 runs at an average of 20.77, with his highest score being 110 at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 2015. Aside from that century, KL Rahul’s contributions in Australia have been modest; in the other seven innings, he has managed only 61 runs, with a top score of 44 and six instances of single-digit scores.
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