When Sarfaraz Khan scored a splendid 150 in Bengaluru against New Zealand, it looked like KL Rahul’s position in the Indian test team was under huge question mark. After all, Rahul didn’t score a single hundred across ten innings in 2024. Fast forward now, he has looked India’s best batter in the first BGT Test in Perth. Moreover, this has redeemed his stats in the land down under that were looked all doom and gloom before.
KL Rahul masterclass with Jaiswal takes India forward
It was hard for Abhimanyu Easwaran to miss out despite Rohit Sharma not being available. But India went with the experience of KL Rahul, who played as a makeshift opener. Despite enduring a troubling form, Rahul proved to be India’s best batter in Perth, at least as far as technique was concerned. He was staying at his crease, playing close to his body and didn’t bother touching deliveries outside off-stump. Unfortunately, he was deemed out by the third umpire in a controversial fashion in the first innings. Had he stayed on the crease, the Karnataka-born would’ve surely cashed in. In the first innings when the Indian batting fell like a pack of cards, KL Rahul looked a class apart.
Now in the second innings, KL Rahul made sure to cash in on his great start. He clubbed a half-century, taking India way ahead in the game. Rahul, who didn’t score a single fifty in his last seven attempts in Australia, put his hoodoo behind. What hoodoo? Well, look at stats below.
KL Rahul stats in Tests in AUS prior IND vs AUS Perth Test
| Matches | Inns | Runs | HS | Ave | SR | 100 | 50 | 0 |
| 3 | 5 | 57 | 44 | 11.4 | 55.88 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Obviously the above stats don’t include his century in Sydney, but it was fair to say that KL didn’t fancy playing in Australia. But now, he has been playing with some superb technique. So far in the ongoing Test, Rahul has smashed a total of 83 runs at an average of 83.00.
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