Team India's star middle-order batter KL Rahul is in the news but not for good reasons. Criticism from fans and experts have gotten intense due to Rahul's prolonged lean patch. The Indian team management is facing heat for backing Rahul despite back-to-back failures, poor form.
Last time Rahul scored a century in Tests was back in December 2021 against South Africa at Centurion. In the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy, he has scored mere 38 runs in first two Tests at an average of 12.67. Rahul hasn't scored a single 25-plus score in his last 10 Test innings for India.
Rahul's repeated failures could help in-form Shubman Gill to replace him as second opener for remaining two Tests against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar series.
Meanwhile, in an exclusive chat with official broadcaster Star Sports after conclusion of Ind vs Aus Delhi Test, Dravid called Rahul 'one of the most successful overseas openers' that India have had.
"I think he needs to trust his processes. This is just a phase, he has been one of our most successful overseas openers. He's got hundreds in South Africa and England, we'll continue to back him. I believe he has the quality and class to come out of this. It is great working with this unit, managing formats is the most difficult part. But there's not a lot of technical coaching, just simple conversations and challenging them, and giving them a pat on the back when they do well," Dravid said.
When asked about Rahul's form in the post-match press conference, Rohit Sharma defended his teammate by saying," When you are playing on pitches like these, you need to find your methods of scoring runs. Different individuals are part of this team and they will have different methods of scoring runs. We are not going to look too much into what one individual is doing. It is about how everyone needs to come together. It is a big series for us, so yeah that is my thought on KL."