“This is KL Rahul’s story. It’s amazing that he plays a brilliant innings at the Test level, and the next two-three innings it seems like he got a pair in the last Test,” said Manjrekar.
“Even when you saw him bat today (Day 1 of Chennai Test), it almost seemed like an innings without purpose. But that can happen. It happened with me in the second half of my career, where everything was internalised. I went into bat just thinking about my technique, am I going to play this ball well, imagining a certain type of delivery coming in and I have got to play properly instead of going to your instinct as a batter, which I think all the other Indian batters practice…about getting runs. Even if you are defending, (you are) looking for ones and twos,” he explained.
Rahul was the sixth Indian wicket to fall and the scorecard wore a worried look at 144 for 6. But India’s bowling all-rounders, the spin twins Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, had other ideas.
Local man Ashwin went on to score sixth Test century in his 101st Test and had an unbroken partnership of 195 runs with Jadeja, who was batting on 86 when stumps were drawn on Thursday.
Ashwin will resume his knock on Friday at 102 not out.
Coming back to Rahul’s innings, Manjrekar felt temperamental issues are hurting the right-hander.
“I think that is more a temperamental problem with KL Rahul, which has plagued him for 50 Test matches. The numbers that he has…He’s got hundreds, not one or two, quite a few in testing conditions. But the average of 34 tells you about his temperament, and that we got a look at today as well,” said Manjrekar.
Rahul has scored 2879 runs in 87 Test innings at an average of 33.87, including 8 hundreds and 14 fifties.
“Let’s hope things improve for him in the second innings,” Manjrekar concluded.
The 2024 edition of the Legends League Cricket (LLC) is set to kick off on September 20 at the Barkatullah Khan Stadium in Jodhpur. This marks the beginning of
Pacer Hasan Mahmud emerged the most successful Bangladesh bowler, snaring five wickets for 83 runs. | Photo Credit: R. Ragu Riding on Ravichandran Ashwin's c
This is only the sixth instance in Chennai’s history that 9 or more wickets in an innings have been taken by fast bowlersHistory has been scripted at the MA
CHENNAI, India (AP): Ravichandran Ashwin scored his sixth Test hundred as he and Ravindra Jadeja dug India’s cricketers out of trouble against Ba