Ever since the four-Test India- Australia Border-Gavaskar Trophy started, two names have been trending on social media. One is opener KL Rahul and another is former pacer Venkatesh Prasad, who has written multiple threads on why Rahul shouldn’t be picked in the Indian Test team.
Rahul has managed scores of 20, 17, and 1 in these two Tests and while it was expected that he might be dropped from the Indian squad for the remaining two Tests, BCCI decided to give him more chances and retained the same squad for the last two matches to be played in Indore and Ahmedabad.
However, he is no longer the vice-captain of the Test side, lessening the burden of leadership on him, and allowing him to focus on his batting.
The former India pacer has unarguably been Rahul's staunchest critic in recent times, questioning his place in the Indian team despite repeated failures. And now, Prasad has now blasted the 'overseas Test record' perception that some seem to have of the opening batter.
Prasad, in a series of tweets, questioned those backing India's persistence with Rahul owing to a great 'overseas Test record' and along with some stats, showed that the right-hander averaged just 30 with the bat in 56 innings outside India.
"There is a view that KL Rahul has an outstanding overseas Test record. But stats speak otherwise. He has a test avg of 30 overseas in 56 innings. He has scored 6 overseas centuries but followed it up with a string of low scores that's why averaging 30. Let's look at a few others," Prasad tweeted with a graphic highlighting Rahul's overseas record.
The former India pacer also shared the statistics of the likes of other opening batters -- Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal, Shubman Gill and Ajinkya Rahane -- suggesting their statistics remain better than Rahul's.
"Shikhar Dhawan has the best overseas average amongst recent openers. Avg of nearly 40 with 5 100's. Though he too hasn't been consistent in Test but had Outstanding centuries in SL and NZ, plus a much better home record.
Mayank Agarwal after the brilliant start in Aust did struggle in away test matches. But he has by far the best home record. Avg of nearly 70 in 13 innings,2 double 100's & a 150 on a Wankhede pitch where everyone else struggled. Great against spin & had a prolific domestic season,” he added.
"Shubman Gill has had a brief international career and in 14 overseas innings averages 37, with his 91 at Gabba amongst the best overseas 4th innings and has been in outstanding form.
And if overseas performance is a criteria, Ajinkya Rahane despite being out of form and also inconsistent before being dropped had one of the best overseas Test record, averaging over 40 overseas in 50 test matches. Was out of form and dropped ...," Venkatesh wrote in multiple tweets.
Prasad also feels that Rahul has the best chance of returning to form in the Indore Test. If he doesn't do that, he should go and play county cricket.
"But with KL being retained for the remaining 2 test matches, if he is picked in the playing 11, Indore is his best chance of coming back to form and silencing critics like me. Else needs to play county cricket, perform well and make a comeback in the Test side," he concluded.
