‘That is Where Questions Will Start to Arise’: Dinesh Karthik Thinks Australia Test Series Could Decide KL Rahul’s India Future

KL Rahul continues to struggle across formats as he was dismissed for just 2 on the third day of the 2nd Test between India and Bangladesh in Dhaka as his team began its chase of 145 with an aim of a 2-0 series sweep. The latest failure has put a big question mark on his future with India embarking a busy 2023 with back-to-back limited-overs series at home against Sri Lanka and New Zealand in January before welcoming Australia for a four-Test series later.

Rahul is rated quite highly by the Indian team management and rightly so but the 30-year-old has struggled to produce his old form with the bat since returning to international cricket from an injury earlier this year.

In the four innings that Rahul has batted in the ongoing two-Test series in Bangladesh, he managed a combined 57 runs.

India wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik reckons that Rahul might not be given the axe anytime soon and the Indian team should be backing him in this struggling period of his career.

However, he adds that should the opener not able to turn around his fortunes during the Australia Tests,  then it will be difficult for him to keep his place.

“Let’s look at the recent past,” Karthik said on Cricbuzz. ,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.”

“He’s the (stand-in) 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,” he added.

Karthik thinks that Rahul has the added pressure of leading this team in the absence of regular captain Rohit Sharma which is adding to his struggles.

“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,” Karthik said.

He continued, “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 committed 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.”

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