KL Rahul was not India’s first-choice opener before the start of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia. Since Rohit Sharma wasn’t available for the series opener in Perth, Rahul was asked to open the innings and he made the most of it.
Rahul negotiated the new ball brilliantly and returned with scores of 26 and 77 to set-up India’s thumping 295-run victory.
With his impressive exploits, Rahul forced the team management to retain him at the top of the order even as Rohit returned for the second Test. The Indian captain moved down to No. 6 in the batting order.
While Rahul scored 37 and 7 across the two innings of pink-ball Test in Adelaide, he shined once again as an opener at the Gabba, producing a gritty 84 off 139 balls in India’s first innings.
Speaking on Cricbuzz, former cricketer Dinesh Karthik lauded KL Rahul’s stellar showing in tough conditions Down Under and hoped that the latter continues to get the backing of Indian team management as an opener.
“I believe in him. We have the opener that India wants, and I hope that they back him. In one year’s time, if there is a series where he has a couple of low scores, I hope people don’t have a very short memory. They need to value what he is doing today, and that matters a lot," Karthik said.
“People tend to forget that a lot of Test cricketers are judged on what they do away, and he’s been as good as anyone who’s ever played for the country in some period of time," he added.
“We always complain about his consistency. And I think that’s something that he takes upon himself, and he hasn’t been that… The average suggests that 34 is what he averages as we speak, but he is way better than that. He is someone who is much, much better than that. But if you just take any Indian team that wants to tour abroad, he’d be one of the earlier names that you’d put in that list because you know what you’re gonna get from him," he further remarked.
Recently, Rahul attributed his success in the ongoing Test tour of Australia to tighter defence and the strategy of giving respect to bowlers in the first 30 overs of an innings.
"The only thing you can do in the first 30 overs is to tighten up your defence, try and respect that the first 30 overs is the bowler's time and give them their time, leave balls, try and play as tight as possible and then really try to cash in once the ball gets older. So that's my plan, and that's pretty simple, and I'm sure that's the plan for everybody," Rahul told reporters during the rain-marred Gabba Test.
The Border-Gavaskar Trophy currently stands level at 1-1. The fourth and penultimate Test of the series will be played at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground from December 26.
