'Needs to Play County, Perform and Return': Venkatesh Prasad Questions KL Rahul's Inclusion in Remaining 2 Tests

KL Rahul’s inclusion in the remaining 2 Tests of the Border Gavaskar Trophy has been questioned by former India pacer Venkatesh Prasad, who has been a staunch critic of the Indian opener for a while.

Rahul has struggled with the bat of late, managing to score just 38 runs in his past three innings.

While Indian skipper Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid have thrown their weight behind Rahul given his overseas record, Prasad took to Twitter to highlight that there are players who have performed better in overseas conditions and they have not been selected for the Indian team.

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Prasad has been very vocal in his criticism of KL Rahul, and after the 30-year-old was retained in India’s squad for the remaining two Tests of the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2023 – which India have retained as they currently lead 2-0 – the veteran aimed another attack at the Indian vice-captain.

Venkatesh Prasad in a long Twitter thread highlighted how Rahul’s Test average stands at 30, and while he has smashed 6 centuries on overseas pitches, his recent track record has been poor.

“There is a view that KL Rahul has an outstanding overseas Test record. But stats speak otherwise. He has a test avg of 30 overseas in 56 innings. He has scored 6 overseas centuries but followed it up with a string of low scores that’s why averaging 30. Let’s look at a few others,” he wrote.

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He would then go on to share the statistics of Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal, Shubman Gill and also former India vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane, to compare their numbers with Rahul’s.

“And if overseas performance is a criteria, Ajinkya Rahane despite being out of form and also inconsistent before being dropped had one of the best overseas Test record, averaging over 40 overseas in 50 test matches. Was out of form and dropped,” argued Prasad.

He further added that the Indian opener should prove his worth in the upcoming third Test match between India and Australia, to silence his critics, or he should go back and play county cricket, and then make a comeback to the Indian team.

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“But with KL being retained for the remaining 2 test matches, if he is picked in the playing 11, Indore is his best chance of coming back to form and silencing critics like me. Else needs to play county cricket, perform well and make a comeback in the Test side,” Venkatesh concluded.

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