KL Rahul's form has come under scrutiny after failing to convert two starts in the series against West Indies. In Antigua, Rahul got starts even as wickets fell around him and made 44 and 38 before falling to Roston Chase in both innings.
Rahul's temperament in long-format cricket is coming under heavy scrutiny after his inconsistent returns in Test cricket. What's evident in Rahul's form is his inability to start the series off on a good note. Of his five tons in Test matches since his debut, three have come in the fourth or fifth match of the series when the result of the series had already been decided.
In the first match of a Test series, Rahul averages 22.92 in 13 innings with just two half-centuries. The averages progressively increase and reaches a whopping 128.33 by the fifth Test of a series where he has two centuries in three innings.
The first of his three inconsequential centuries came against Australia in Sydney in the fourth Test of the series in 2015 when Australia had already won 2-0. Against England in 2016, Rahul made a 199 in Chennai in the fifth Test after India had already won the series 3-0. Last year again, he made a fifth Test ton at the Oval in England after the series had been lost.
The inconsistent returns have always been there since his debut on Boxing Day in 2014 in Australia. But since 2018, it has become crystal clear and with Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan dumped, Rahul is now the senior partner to Mayank Agarwal.
In South Africa last year, Rahul made scores of 10, 4, 0 and 16 - an average of 7.5 in four innings. In England, he was once again found out against swing and made scores of 4, 13, 8, 10, 23, 36, 19 and 0 before making a 149 in the final Test at The Oval, a dead rubber with England having already won the series.
His poor run continued in Australia where he made four single-digit scores in five innings. In between, he even struggled against West Indies in the series at home, making 37 runs in three outings at an average of 18.5.
In the West Indies, Rahul has once again started off on a sour note. His starts haven't been converted and it adds to an increasing problem for India at the top of the order. Since 2018, the average opening partnership for India in Tests is less than 30. They only have one century stand in this time frame and with another failure in West Indies so far, the issue is only compounding.
Featured image courtesy: AFP / Randy Brooks
