MSK Prasad confident of KL Rahul getting back his groove soon

KL Rahul made an impressive arrival in international cricket in 2014 but has hit a wall over the last several months. Barring a century in the fifth Test against England at the Oval last year, the 26-year-old has failed to meet the expectations from him. The cricketer has faced a tremendous backlash and his controversial appearance with team-mate Hardik Pandya on a television show of ace filmmaker Karan Johar made things even worse.

The Committee of Administrators though lifted the suspension over the duo saying they have had enough and allowed them to return to the game. But Rahul is yet to find his purple patch with the bat. He played three List A games for India ‘A’ against England Lions since then and scored 55 in all with the highest score of 42.

He managed just 57 runs in five innings in three Tests against Australia recently and would consider himself lucky to still have played that many games because of the injury to Prithvi Shaw before the series began. The Karnataka batsman now has time running out for if he fails to return among the runs soon, chances of him playing his first World Cup could evaporate even faster than his dismissals.

The chief selector MSK Prasad, however, is not ready to give up hope on KL Rahul yet. The batsman, who has over 3,000 runs in international cricket, was playing in a four-day game for India ‘A’ against England Lions in Wayanad, Kerala, starting Thursday (February 7), and Prasad was confident that the opener will hit form soon.

Even the greatest of players have ups and downs

“Everybody goes through those phases. Even the greatest of players have their ups and downs in their careers with regard to their form. We want KL to be among runs and that’s why we have included him against England Lions and BP XI match,” Prasad was quoted as saying by Sportstar.

Stressing the need to back Rahul, the former India wicket-keeper said it is necessary to extend support to a player who was done very well and then went out of form. He expressed confidence that the opening batsman will be back into the Indian team soon. “We really want him (Rahul) to make a strong comeback by getting runs in whatever matches he gets. I am sure he will do so,” he said.

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