Team India's star opener KL Rahul led the side in the two-Test series against Bangladesh; while the side enjoyed a dominant outing in the first Test and continues to hold an edge over the hosts in the second, Rahul's individual performances leave much to be desired. Across three innings in the two Tests so far, Rahul had scores of 22, 23, and 10. On Day 2 of the second Test, Rahul was the first to be dismissed as he failed to read the line, eventually being trapped plumb against Taijul Islam.
The consistent failures from Rahul have triggered debates over his place in the side on social media; however, India's star wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik believes that this is the time when the 30-year-old Indian batter needs support from the team management.
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When asked whether Rahul's place in the XI could be in jeopardy during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy next year (as Rohit Sharma is expected to return to the squad by then), Karthik insisted that India need to stick with him.
“Let's look at the recent past. Before these two Bangladesh Tests, three against South Africa, four against England that he played. In those 7 Tests, he's got two centuries and two fifties and those are in away conditions. These are tough conditions to play in, so as a support staff of the Indian team, when you look at him, you know he's got the skill. He's not going through the best of times at this point, and you got to back him,” Karthik said on Cricbuzz.
{{/usCountry}}“Let's look at the recent past. Before these two Bangladesh Tests, three against South Africa, four against England that he played. In those 7 Tests, he's got two centuries and two fifties and those are in away conditions. These are tough conditions to play in, so as a support staff of the Indian team, when you look at him, you know he's got the skill. He's not going through the best of times at this point, and you got to back him,” Karthik said on Cricbuzz.
{{/usCountry}}“He's the captain of the Indian team and you can't let go of him easy. I think, he will definitely start the Australian series, and if things don't go well there, that is where the questions will start to arise in a much bigger manner.”
Further talking about Rahul's inconsistent outings, Karthik said that the batter has been tentative at times and that can happen when there's “a lot happening” in the mind.
“Look, I think we have to understand mindsets of batters. Right now, there's a lot happening in his mind. He's the captain, he hasn't got the volume of runs he wants. He is under pressure, he is tentative when he starts to bat. This happens to a lot of batters, literally every batter who plays for the country. You go through spell where you find the runs hard to come by,” said Karthik.
"It could be the new ball, you feel the conditions are made for batting, sometimes you don't get to runs and everyday the mind keeps throwing doubts at you and it gets bigger and bigger. In his case, he's tentative, he's not very comitted to the front foot. He's hanging back, hoping that the ball would turn and he could play the ball. But at times, he is trying to make an effort to play.
“It's not a technical error, there's a lot happening for KL Rahul at the moment.”