KL Rahul's India teammate Dinesh Karthik has become the latest cricketer to slam the opening batter following his string of low scores in the just-concluded Test series against Bangladesh.
According to Dinesh Karthik, KL Rahul's days in the Indian cricket team, across formats are numbered and time was running out for the Karnataka lad to resurrect his career.
The veteran India wicketkeeper-batter opined that the Test series against Australia in February and March could be his last in India colors because a failure against the Kangaroos will possibly end his national team career.
“I would give KL those couple of Test matches, but if things don’t go KL Rahul's way… The one thing that does go against him is the fact that he has played over 40 Tests and his average is just mid-30s. That is not acceptable for an opener. That is one of the lowest among Indian players for sure, who have played 35 Test matches,” Dinesh Karthik said on Cricbuzz.
“That is something that he needs to definitely work on. That will be on his mind. If he wants to cement his place in the Test team, he needs to get a couple of hundreds against Australia. Otherwise, you can definitely see a change, with Shubman Gill doing so well,” Dinesh Karthik added.
“Look, I think we have to understand mindsets of batters. Right now, there's a lot happening in his mind. He's the captain, he hasn't got the volume of runs he wants. He is under pressure, he is tentative when he starts to bat. This happens to a lot of batters, literally every batter who plays for the country. You go through spell where you find the runs hard to come by,” Dinesh Karthik explained.
“It could be the new ball, you feel the conditions are made for batting, sometimes you don't get to runs and everyday the mind keeps throwing doubts at you and it gets bigger and bigger. In his case, he's tentative, he's not very comitted to the front foot. He's hanging back, hoping that the ball would turn and he could play the ball. But at times, he is trying to make an effort to play. It's not a technical error, there's a lot happening for KL Rahul at the moment,” the seasoned Tamil Nadu batter opined.
Much before Dinesh Karthik's criticism, KL Rahul was roasted with memes after his disastrous run with the bat continued with the bat against Bangladesh on Thursday.
After failing to go past 23 in his first three knocks against the home team, KL Rahul was dismissed for only 2 in the final innings of the second Test in Dhaka, ending the tour on a disappointing note after posting a string of poor scores in ODIs.
With KL Rahul's struggles continuing on the pitch, several Indian fans took to Twitter to slam him for his diminishing returns with the bat.
While some labeled him a “fraud”, others mocked him by claiming that he has now promised his vow of scoring runs against weak opposition and that's why he didn't perform well against Bangladesh.
“Thank you KL Rahul for your memories. Happy retirement. Now never come back in our team. No one cares about you and no requirement of a dead player like you. Go and play IPL and earn money because you never earn our respect,” a fuming Indian cricket admirer tweeted.
Following KL Rahul's horror show in Bangladesh, reports emerged that he would face the axe from India's T20I side for the upcoming series against Sri Lanka next month.
“The old committee will probably select the Sri Lanka white ball squad,” a BCCI official told the news agency PTI. “As of now, it doesn’t look like Rohit Sharma’s finger will heal enough before the T20Is and in that case, Hardik will lead the side. As far as KL Rahul is concerned, his T20I days seem to be numbered.”
“Chetan and his committee are still watching domestic cricket. They watched the full Vijay Hazare Trophy and also the first two rounds of Ranji Trophy. Debasish Mohanty was present at Eden Gardens to watch Bengal vs Himachal Pradesh. Basically, they got a two-month extension till December 25,” the BCCI source added.
KL Rahul has faced severe flak from both Team India supporters and former cricketers for his inability to score runs across all three formats.
While it was his batting approach at the top of the order that was heavily criticized during India's failed T20 World Cup campaign in Australia last month, his struggles in the recent ODIs against Bangladesh once again raised questions about his place in the national team.
In the Test series against Bangladesh, KL Rahul could only manage scores of 22, 23 10, and 2 in the four knocks he played in Chattogram and Dhaka.
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