KL Rahul’s spot in the Indian team came under the scanner after his failure in the opening Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test against Australia in Nagpur last week.

Despite his scores of 22, 23, 10 and 2 in an away two-Test series against Bangladesh in December 2022, Rahul was preferred in India’s starting XI over the in-form Shubman Gill.

However, the right-hander failed to repay the faith of the team management, scoring only 20 runs off 71 balls. As a result, he drew flak from the fans and cricket experts, with many of them questioning his place in the side.

Despite the criticism, KL Rahul retained his spot in the Indian team for the second Test against Australia in Delhi, which got underway on February 17.

Commenting on Rahul’s place in the Indian Test side, former cricketer-turned-commentator Sanjay Manjrekar said that the opening batter is probably the only cricketer who goes out of form after scoring a century.

"KL Rahul is a curious case because over the last 5 years, I have found that he scores a hundred and immediately goes out of form. Have you seen a batter like that?" Manjrekar told the host broadcaster Star Sports in the build-up to the second Test match.

"In South Africa he got a hundred and a fifty and next 5 Test matches for India, he averaged 15. This is a guy who has played 45 Test matches and averages 34," he further added.

Young opener Shubman Gill has been in superb form lately. He stole the limelight with his exploits in the recently held white-ball series against New Zealand. The 23-year-old registered scores of 208, 40* and 112 in three T20Is while he slammed 126 off 63 balls in the series-deciding third T20I.

"Shubman Gill is waiting in the wings. Sure, there is a strong argument to have the class of KL Rahul in the team, but there is also an argument to play somebody who is in form," Manjrekar stated.

"Somebody who has played 45 Tests and still averages 34, that tells you a story," he concluded.

(India Today Inputs)