Th Indian team’s top-order got shattered against Bangladesh pacer Hasan Mahmud on the first day of the Test match in Chennai on Thursday. The Men in Blue were left reeling at 37/3 shortly after being asked to bat first under overcast conditions before Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rishabh Pant came to their rescue.
However, after Pant departed for 39 runs, regular wickets began to fall again, with KL Rahul’s departure on 16 putting India under pressure again. The side was left reeling at 144/6 before Ravichandran Ashwin, alongside Ravindra Jadeja formed an imcredible partnership that took the hosts over the 300-run mark by the end of day’s play.
However, India’s poor effort with the bat didn’t go unnoticed and former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar spoke about KL Rahul in particular, addressing his recurring ‘temperamental’ issues after his failure in the first innings. The batter looked like a shadow of his former self as he failed to settle on the challenging pitch.
“Completely understandable that they went for KL Rahul, It was just about experience, class, and recent form – the century in South Africa and an 80 in the only Test he played against England. But this is KL Rahul’s story; it is amazing that he plays a brilliant innings at the Test level, and in the next two to three innings, it seems like he has got a pair in the last Test. Even when you saw him bat today, it almost seemed an innings without purpose,” Manjrekar told ESPNcricinfo.
“That is more of a temperamental problem with KL Rahul that has plagued him for 50 Test matches because the numbers that he has, while he has got some brilliant hundreds, an average of 34 with quite a few 100s in testing conditions tells you about his temperament, which we got a look at today as well,” Manjrekar added.
