‘We were talking about him being India’s best batter…then you saw the failures again’: Manjrekar on KL Rahul’s Australia tour | Cricket News
KL Rahul’s decade-long Test career has been a repetitive tale of talent and unfulfilled potential and former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar was not pleased with how the recent Border-Gavaskar Trophy ended for the Karnataka batter after a promising start.
Despite being snubbed several times since making a Test debut on Boxing Day in 2014, Rahul has made comebacks only to find himself in the line of fire again. The recent Border-Gavaskar Trophy had Rahul win over the Indian fans and pundits after replacing captain Rohit Sharma at the top of the order in the first Test. Opening with Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rahul’s stoic resance with a second-innings 77 in Perth was crucial to set up a 295-run win.
However, the 32-year-old’s shares dwindled considerably in the four subsequent matches. Rahul only achieved one more 50-plus score on the tour, scoring 84 in the third Test in Brisbane.
Manjrekar lamented that Rahul missed the opportunity to make a career-defining impact in Australia. “I think now we know what KL Rahul is about. We were talking about him being India’s best batter at the start of the series. He looked so compact, then got that 80 in Brisbane as well. We thought this might just change his career in the right direction. Then you saw the failures again,” Manjrekar was quoted as saying ESPNCricinfo.
Rahul completed his 100th Test innings in his 58th appearance in India’s five-wicket defeat in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy finale in Sydney last week. His 33.57 average for 3257 career Test runs is the lowest among all Indian Test batters to have played at least 100 innings in the top six. He finished the series as India’s third-highest run-getter with 276 runs, averaging 30.11.
Despite the inconsency, Manjrekar said that India will pers with Rahul when they return to Test cricket in England later this year.
“I don’t see him being left out for England considering that India still are looking for an opener. They don’t want to go to [Abhimanyu] Easwaran and KL Rahul, the last time he was there, played well. So, I see that opening combination continuing, unless Rohit Sharma comes in and throws spanner in the works,” said Manjrekar.
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