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‘Don’t focus on what's being said': Veteran India bowler Amit Mishra to underfire KL Rahul ahead of 3rd Australia Test
The veteran Indian spinner has extended his support to KL Rahul ahead of the 3rd Test between India and Australia. Rahul's dreadful run in the World Test Championship has also sparked a huge debate among Team India faithful.
KL Rahul is likely to face the selector's axe as the Indian think tank might fancy replacing the out-of-form opener for XI for the 3rd Test against Australia in Indore. The struggling batter has already been removed from the vice-captaincy job following his failures in the first two Test matches of the high-profile Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Rahul's dreadful run in the World Test Championship has also sparked a huge debate among Team India faithfuls.
While former Indian opener Aakash Chopra has backed Rahul amid these testing times, ex-India pacer Venkatesh Prasad has demanded the removal of the out-of-form batter from the playing XI. When asked whether Rahul should take a break to regain some form, India spinner Amit Mishra has opted to share some interesting advice for the Karnataka batter. Mishra, a veteran in the Indian Premier League (IPL), has urged the under-fire batter to only focus on improving his batting.
"It differs from player to player. As much as I have seen him practice with me, he works really hard on his game. I would advise him to focus on cricket and not on what is being said. He has worked hard for the past 4-5 years and has earned his place in the team so I feel he should continue to focus on his process and also switch off when needed. He just needs to go to every nets session and decide to improve his batting by 2-4 percent," Mishra told Sportskeeda.
Rahul has failed to register an individual score greater than 23 in his last 10 Test innings. The former Indian vice-captain registered mediocre scores of 17 and one in the 2nd Test between India and Australia at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. The 30-year-old notched up four scores of under 25 against Bangladesh before the start of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in India.
The Karnataka batter has a below-par average of 33.44 in the longest and oldest format of the game. Rahul has scored 2,642 runs in 47 Test matches for Team India. Rahul made his Test debut against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 2014. The Indian opener has slammed 7 centuries and 13 half-centuries for India in Test cricket. After taking an unbeatable 2-0 lead over Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Rohit's India will meet Pat Cummins and Co. in the 3rd Test at the Holkar Cricket Stadium on March 1st in Indore.
