“At this point it’s not technique, it’s what happening between the ears,” Dinesh Karthik expresses sympathy on KL Rahul’s tough phase

Indian cricketer KL Rahul is experiencing his worst stretch. He has previously missed a lot of games as a result of injuries. He was also benched from the Test team due to poor play, but he had never experienced a dry spell in any of the other formats, with the exception of ODIs. After a string of subpar T20I performances, he was demoted from vice-captaincy in limited overs.

In his recent 2nd Test against Australia, KL Rahul failed to perform in both innings, which forced BCCI to drop KL as vice-captain of India. Chances are, he might not even play the next two Tests against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

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Indian veteran Dinesh Karthik expressed sympathy for the opener. In the second innings of the Delhi Test match against Australia, Rahul was unfortunately dismissed for one as he firmly flicked a delivery from the back of the length, but Peter Handscomb at forward short leg managed to get his body and pads in the way to send the ball towards keeper Alex Carey, who made no error.

Rahul’s underwhelming performance since the South Africa series last year, according to Karthik, will be the reason he loses his spot for the Indore Test beginning March 1.

“He also knows for a fact that if he’s going to be dropped for the next match, which is pretty much an eventuality, it is not because of the one innings, it is because of what has transpired in the last five-six Test matches. He is a class player. He is very good in all formats. At this point, I don’t think it’s the technique, it’s what is happening between the ears. He might need some time away from the game. Come back fresh for the ODIs,” Karthik said.