After the Test debut in 2014, Rahul has played 61 matches. But he has played only 20 of these matches in India.
In the ongoing 5 -match Test series against England, Indian team veteran opener KL Rahul has influenced everyone with his technique. In almost every innings played in the series, Rahul is standing like a wall against the new ball. This is the reason why the Indian team's middle order has performed brilliantly in the current series.
Rahul has scored 375 runs at an average of 62.50 in 6 innings of the series. He is the only player to bat in top-3 for the highest scorer in the series. This is not just about this range.
India's most trusted player abroad 33 -year -old Rahul has been India's most trusted batter overseas in recent years. This can be estimated from the fact that 9 out of 10 centuries in his Test career have been on foreign soil.
However, the average of Rahul's career, which is currently the mainstay of Indian batting, is only 35.26, which does not match at all. Rahul is currently the lowest in the top 6 Indian batters.
But in the meantime it is also important to understand why Rahul, who has been playing for India for more than a decade, is so low? Let's know the reasons for this …
- More matches abroad than at home After the Test debut in 2014, Rahul has played 61 matches. But he has played only 20 of these matches in India. Other home batters make many runs, but they have scored only 1149 runs at an average of 39.62 in 32 innings. During this time, only a century has come out of his bat. At the same time, he has scored 2483 runs in 41 matches played abroad.
- Better performance against a big team Rahul has scored most of his runs against the big teams like England, Australia and South Africa. He has scored 1130 runs and 894 in 16 Tests against England and Australia. In contrast, he has scored very few runs against the weak teams like West Indies (374), Sri Lanka (354), Bangladesh (175) and Afghanistan (54).
- Low conversion rate, score 2 times 150+ Rahul has a low rate of transforming half a century in the century. His career has 18 half centuries and 10 centuries. In 2017, he could not convert 7 consecutive half centuries against Australia and Sri Lanka into the century. There is not a single double century in his career. Rahul has crossed the 150s only twice.
- He continued to be inside the team due to bad form and injury Rahul is a major reason for the low average, even in the inability to play many matches and the frequent out of the team due to bad forms and injuries. The Indian team has played more than 10 matches in 5 matches in the last 10 years after Rahul's debut.
- After Rohit and Virat's retirement, Rahul got the responsibility of the first team's main batter With Virat-Rohit's retirement, Rahul got the responsibility of the team's main batter for the first time. Rahul is playing as the second or third main batter of the team in his career. Rahul could not showcase his ability in great batters like Kohli and Rohit. But after the retirement of both experienced players, Rahul is now the main and most experienced batter of the team. Rahul has taken this responsibility very well in the current series. For the first time in his career, he has scored more than one century in a series.
Image Credit: Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).