Since January 2022, KL Rahul has played 11 Test innings as an opener, and in only one of those has got out before facing ten deliveries. On the face of it, that’s a decent enough stat for an opener, innit?
But the trouble for the Indian vice-captain is that in those 11 innings, he has only managed a 50-plus score just once. His last Test century came in December 2021 against South Africa — the 1st Test of the series that handed India’s series lead — eventually India lost the subsequent two matches to concede the series.
With clamour growing for Shubman Gill, who grabbed the opportunities with both hands whenever he was asked to fill in for either Rahul or Rohit Sharma, to be included in the playing XI, Rahul’s dwindling returns will be in larger focus now.
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Among openers worldwide, Rahul has the worst batting average since January 2022 for players with a minimum of five matches — he averages a mere 17.40. If we broaden that search to include the top 7, Rahul’s misery makes for an even sorry story. He has the fifth-lowest average since 2022 among batters who bat in the top 7. The vice-captain holding on to his spot now comes down to the optics only. How can you drop your vice-captain?
But, not long back India did drop their vice-captain at Newlands in 2018 — Ajinkya Rahane. Rahane was going through a lean patch and justifiably dropped. Will India take the bold call to drop Rahul? Rahul has a career average of 33.85 with a few substantial knocks on tough conditions. But 17.40 will be tough to overlook.
It is not a case of Rahul struggling throughout, like a David Warner. Rahul is putting in the hard yards. He is playing deliveries to set up his innings. At Nagpur he faced 71 deliveries for his 20, and truth be told, barring the odd one that misbehaved landing on a specific patch, Rahul looked unhurried, yet he made an error in judgment to a tossed-up delivery and handed a return catch to Todd Murphy. Prior to that, he faced 45, 62, and 54 against Bangladesh in Mirpur and Chattogram. The cumulative total though was only 55 runs. Against South Africa, taking away his 123 off 260 balls, he faced 74, 133, 21, 35, and 22 deliveries in the next four innings to add 103 runs off which 50 came in one innings at Johannesburg.
Here in Delhi, Rahul would bat 41 deliveries and looked to be in his shell for the majority of the final session on the opening day. Then, on Day 2, he danced down the track to Matthew Kuhnemann and with a silken touch and power to equal measure launched one many rows back at the Pavilion End. That was the only boundary shot for Rahul during his stay before getting pinned by Nathan Lyon in front with a delivery that straightened a tad bit.
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The trouble is not that only Rahul is failing. The top-order cannot string together performance even in home conditions to mask Rahul’s low scores at the top. While the hullabaloo is about the spinners and bowlers, in general, for they have been utterly dominating to pack up the opposition, the batters have not really stepped up to the plate.
At Nagpur, after a strong bowling performance, India found themselves 168/5, before the lower-order all-rounders pulled their weight. Here in Delhi, they were tottering at 139/7, before Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel steadied the ship. Since 2022, off India’s top 4, only Rohit Sharma has an average of over 40. Kohli has been struggling with 26.75, Pujara’s has dropped to 37.81, Rahul’s is 17.40, and Mayank Agarwal is at 18.57. Gill has only played three matches during this time frame to average a shade below 30, but his name is in focus owing to his form across formats.
Gill has been in the purplest of patches imaginable — and he has done a fine job as an opener so far — 689 runs in 13 matches at 31.31 and the majestic 91 at Brisbane — which gets overshadowed by the lower-order’s heroics in that epic win. In ODIs, his last five scores have been 21, 116, 208, 40* and 112. And six T20Is, he averages over 40.
However, all is not lost for Rahul as of yet; he has one more innings to prove his worth here in Delhi, and by the looks of it India will bat again. And if that happens, Rahul would know he has to make his stay in the middle count, or else Gill would force his way in. It’s now down to a matter of one innings for Rahul before the long rope is cut short.
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