Chetan Chauhan blames T20 mindset for KL Rahul’s struggles in Test cricket

Rahul average 22.23 in the last 15 Tests.

Rahul struggling to play the moving ball | Twitter

Former India opener Chetan Chauhan slammed KL Rahul for approaching Test cricket with T20 and which he found responsible for his struggle in the format.

The Karnataka batsman cracked 3 centuries in his first 6 Tests and then went on to hit seven half-centuries in a row in 2017 with only one impressive inning of 149 in whites came in England series in 2018 and since then he has been continuously struggling to find his rhythm and form.

The out-of-form batsman has managed just 102 runs in the just-concluded Test series in West Indies while his 6 runs off 63 balls was the most terrible to watch at Sabina Park, where he had scored 158 in 2016 – which raised questions on his place in the Test side given his constant failure to play the moving ball and losing his wicket in the same fashion.

However, the right-hander has been impressive in the white-ball game, having scored good runs in the IPL 2019 as well as in the World Cup 2019, but his average of 22.23 in the last 15 Tests was not good at all and former Test batsman blamed T20 mindset for Rahul’s red-ball struggle.

As per reports in Hindustan Times, Chauhan quoted: “I am fine if you get out early. But if you get out on 20, 30, 40 then your capacity and temperament are questionable. I saw Rahul going outside the off-stump and sweeping (in the first Test). You can’t do that. It’s a T20 shot. I saw Rahul going outside the off-stump and sweeping (in the first Test). You can’t do that. It’s a T20 shot.”

Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma has been recommended by many former cricketers including Sourav Ganguly to replace the 27-year-old in national Test squad, but Chauhan feels selectors must persist with Rahul.

He signed off by saying, “Opening is the most difficult task in batting. We’ve to persist with the openers, they should be given time to settle down. We must persist with Rahul. He has to play more Ranji games, score big hundreds to find rhythm, how to change the game immediately (from ODI to Test).”

(With Hindustan Times Inputs)

 
 

By Rashmi Nanda - 06 Sep, 2019

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