KL Rahul mid-series form decline is real: Why India's now senior-most batter needs to be at his best in England
New Delhi [India], June 9 (ANI): The upcoming tour of England shapes up to be one of the most important overseas outings for Indian wicketkeeper-batter KL Rahul in his Test career. Often labelled as 'inconsistent', the veteran batter will have to deliver one of the greatest performances of his career to help a new-look Indian team secure a series win under the captaincy of Shubman Gill.
KL has had a very up-and-down Test career so far, scoring 3,257 runs in 58 Tests at an average of 33.57, with eight centuries and 17 fifties with the best score of 199 in 101 innings. Over the years, he has batted in a variety of positions in Tests from first to sixth spot, which has interfered with his consistency. Plenty of fans and experts have accused KL of losing his form as a Test series progresses after starting off well.
He has started off his tour to England really well, with a century and fifty each for India A against England Lions in the second unofficial Test. While such performances must give fans encouragement, there is still a little air of pessimism on social media about how KL would fare in the five-match series marking the start of India's ICC World Test Championship 2023-25 campaign.
For instance, take up the latest Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia from late 2024 to January 2025. While he started off with a solid 77 in a win at Perth, he could make only two more 30-plus scores later in the series, 37 during the second Adelaide Test and 84 at the third Brisbane Test. Across the last two Tests, he batted four times and his highest score was 24. He finished the series with 276 runs in 10 innings at an average of 30.66, with two fifties, in a series that promised so much owing to KL's technical prowess, but delivered so little.
This has been a trend for KL in his Test career, especially while he plays away from home. In India, there is no drop-off in his performances, having made 199 in the fifth Test against England in 2016.
But when away from home, he is mostly on par with the top seven batters (collectively) during the first two Tests of a series, before averaging over 10 runs lesser than rest in other matches.
As per Wisden.com, away from home, during first Tests, he averages 37.0, as compared to 29.2 among the top seven batters as a while. In the second Tests, he averages 30.2, as compared to the 31.5 average of the top seven batters in a small decline.
He faces a steep decline in the third and fourth Tests of the away series, with averages of 22.8 and 26.8 as compared to 31.5 and 36.1 of the top seven batters.
While KL enjoys an edge with an average of 50.8 in four innings across the fifth Tests in comparison to top-seven average of 30.7, it is largely due to his knock of 149 against England in 2018. In other three innings during fifth Tests away from home, he has scored just 54 runs at an average of 18.0.
This trend stays more or less the same during a three-match series away from home. In overseas first Tests, he has scored 390 runs in 10 innings at an average of 39.0, as compared to a top-seven batters' average of 31.2.
In the rest of two Tests, his average tapers off massively. In second Tests away from home, he has made 278 runs in 12 innings at an average of 23.2, which is pretty low in comparison top-seven batters average of 30.8. In the third Tests, it falls down to 18.1 as compared to the top-seven batters average of 26.0, as he has made just 127 runs in seven innings.
After Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli's recent retirements and Team India seemingly having moved on from middle-order veterans Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane, KL is undoubtedly the senior-most batter on the tour. It is now-or-never for the superstar batter to produce an all-timer series that justifies his talent.
The five-test tour of England, starting June 20 at Leeds and lasting until August 2025, is set to be a heavy one for fans and players alike. With senior stars Rohit and Virat having retired from the longest format of the game, the onus lies on the Shubman Gill-led new-look Indian side to prove themselves away from home in tough English conditions and ensure that Indian cricket is safe.
The series will be held from June to August 2025, with matches scheduled at Headingley in Leeds, Edgbaston in Birmingham, Lord's and The Oval in London, and Old Trafford in Manchester.
India's Test squad for England series: Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav. (ANI)
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