India batter KL Rahul has ben receiving a lot of flak from the fans and experts for his yet another poor batting performance in the first two Tests against Australia in the ongoing four-match series. In both the matches, the opening batter could fetch low scores like 20 and 18 and visibly struggled against both spin and pace. Recently, former India pacer Venkatesh Prasad became very vocal about the backing Rahul has been getting from the Indian management, despite a series of poor performances. However, Rahul found a support system in veteran leg-spinner Amit Mishra, who backed the batter and stated that he should just focus on his game.
“It differs from player to player. As much as I have seen him practice with me, he works really hard on his game. I would advise him to focus on cricket and not on what is being said,” Amit Mishra told Sportskeeda.
“He has worked hard for the past 4-5 years and has earned his place in the team so I feel he should continue to focus on his process and also switch off when needed. He just needs to go to every nets session and decide to improve his batting by 2-4 percent,” he added.
Amit Mishra will be playing for the KL Rahul-led Lucknow Super Giants in the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League.
Rahul has also been named in India’s squad for the remaining two Test matches against Australia. However, he has lost his position as the vice-captain of the team.
Coming to the match, the Australian batters paid the price for some atrocious shot selection as Jadeja, who enjoyed a 10-wicket match haul, along with Ravichandran Ashwin (3/59) decimated the visitors in the morning session, bowling them out for 113 in 31.1 overs. The last nine wickets fell for 52 runs.
KL Rahul (1) cut a sorry figure but Indian batters showed how to play spin as the target of 115 was completed in 26.4 overs.
Cheteshwar Pujara had something to cheer about on his 100th Test appearance as he remained unbeaten on 31 and fittingly hit the winning boundary. India have now put one foot in the final of the World Test Championship in England in June, having taken an unassailable 2-0 lead in the four-match series.
The third Test will be played in Indore from March 1.
(With PTI Inputs)
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