India vs Australia | It is hard to understand what is wrong with KL Rahul’s batting, says Samuel Jayaraj Muthu

KL Rahul has been out of form for some time now and has not been able to score even a half-century in the ongoing series against Australia. In the five innings, he has failed to impress even in a single inning and was even dropped for the third match. But Rohit Sharma’s absence propelled the team management to include Rahul in the team for the final match. 

“Rahul is batting well, what is going wrong is hard to understand. When he is batting in the nets, he tells me that he is feeling confident. He is looking good in the middle in the short time that he is there but the scores are not coming. This is a phase and every batsman goes through such a phase,” he told CricketNext.

“His preparation was really good before the series. It just a matter of one big score and everything will fall in place. He just needs to face a lot of balls in the middle, which he himself knows. The basics are strong, the feet are moving, he just needs to spend a length of time in the middle. If he plays about a hundred balls, he will be back to form.”

With continuous failures, Rahul is most likely to be dropped from the team and Prithvi Shaw is expected to replace him now. But, Rahul’s coach has come in support of his disciple and stated that the right-hander needs some help and he is ready to do so. 

“I want to meet and work with him. He just needs a bit of moulding. Someone needs to sit and talk to him — either his parents, me or some other coach. We spoke before the Test match, mentally he was very strong and confidence was there,” Jayaraj said.

The coach also defended Rahul and stated that he had prepared well for the series. He also explained that Rahul had few bad performances during his teenage years but right now is not going through best of his phases. 

“He did his homework, prepared for the different batting surfaces. Indian team provided him with a left-arm throwdown specialist as well so he could prepare for (Mitchell) Starc’s pace. He needs more time in the middle, rather than the pavilion — which he hates. This is the first time in his career that he has been forced to spend long hours in the pavilion.

“I have seen him bat from 11 years of age. He had very few ducks from 11 to 19. The day he did get a duck, the next match would be 100 for sure. The only thing he was saying to me before the Sydney Test was that: ‘I need to get runs’. But I told him don’t think about runs, think about spending time in the middle.”

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