Delhi: After the clean sweep defeat in the Test series against South Africa on their own pitches, there has to be a post mortem of the performance of Team India players. Among those who are the most targeted, one name is that of KL Rahul. It is not that he is a useless player. Just a few days ago, his 532 runs scored at an average of 53+ in 5 Tests in this year’s England tour and 196 runs scored at an average of 98 against West Indies in 2 Tests on his own pitches were being discussed. After that, in the series against South Africa, he again became a villain when he scored only 39, 1, 22 and 6 in 4 innings.

Rahul’s failure in South Africa series

Even Anil Kumble could not hide his anger over his poor shot in the second innings of the Guwahati Test. When he was beaten by Simon Harmer, he said that only a clumsy person would play like this. On the fourth day of the Test in Guwahati, even though there was a challenge to save the Test, that bad shot by KL Rahul in the last minutes increased the team’s problem, the score became 27/2 in front of the target of 522 runs.

Against South Africa, he scored 68 runs in 4 innings at an average of 17 and a total record of 4053 runs in 67 Tests at an average of 35.86. It is surprising that a batsman whose test average is not even 40 has played 67 tests. It is not that after this failure he will completely withdraw from the selectors’ scheme, but this issue will remain a mystery. Especially when it is being claimed that there is so much talent in India at present that there are many contenders for a spot in the Test team. This question is as much to Sai Sudarshan as it is to KL Rahul.

Less chances for other batsmen

Abhimanyu Easwaran was not even given a chance to debut in so many years and was dropped from the team without even giving him a chance. In the same period, KL Rahul played 67 tests at an average of about 36. Sarfaraz Khan scored 371 runs in 6 Tests at an average of 37+, which included 4 scores of 50+ including one 100 and this is the performance of the beginning of his Test career. Don’t give him a chance, his confidence has dropped so much that today that batsman is struggling to score runs even in Ranji matches.

• Among the 20 players who are considered pure batsmen or all-rounders who have played at least 60 Tests for India, only Ravi Shastri and Kapil Dev have a batting average lower than that of KL Rahul, just a little less.
• Among the 19 players who have scored 4000 Test runs for India, only Kapil Dev’s batting average is lower than KL Rahul.
• Out of 149 players who have scored 4000 runs in Test cricket, 137 have a higher batting average than KL Rahul.

Looking at this record, the question has to be asked that so many opportunities and many others kept waiting for the right opportunity for KL Rahul. India’s home series was a golden opportunity for Rahul to improve his record against South Africa but despite the experience, he disappointed his team. A major reason for India’s most famous batting failure was his failure.