NEW DELHI: Former India pacer Venkatesh Prasad on Monday slammed the struggling India opener KL Rahul for his poor run in Tests. Prasad, who represented India in 33 Tests, pointed out KL's overseas and home records and compared his statistics with the likes of Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal, Shubman Gill and Ajinkya Rahane.
KL's last century in Tests came way back in December 2021 - vs South Africa in Centurion.
In the ongoing Border-Gavaskar trophy, KL has scored just 38 runs in 2 Tests at an average of 12.67.
"There is a view that KL Rahul has an outstanding overseas Test record. But stats speak otherwise. He has a test avg of 30 overseas in 56 innings. He has scored 6 overseas centuries but followed it up with a string of low scores that's why averaging 30. Let's look at a few others," Prasad wrote on his Twitter handle.
"Shikhar Dhawan has the best overseas average amongst recent openers. Avg of nearly 40 with 5 100's. Though he too hasn't been consistent in Test but had Outstanding centuries in SL and NZ, plus a much better home record," the former India seamer wrote in another tweet.
"Mayank Agarwal after the brilliant start in Aust did struggle in away test matches.But he has by far the best home record. Avg of nearly 70 in 13 innings,2 double 100's & a 150 on a Wankhede pitch where everyone else struggled. Great against spin & had a prolific domestic season," Prasad tweeted.
Prasad also hailed Ajinkya Rahane, who is not the part of the Test series, and tagged Shubman's 91 vs Australia at The Gabba in Brisbane being "one of the best overseas fourth innings".
"Shubhman Gill has had a brief international career and in 14 overseas innings averages 37, with his 91 at Gabba amongst the best overseas 4th innings and has been in outstanding form," he tweeted.
"And if overseas performance is a criteria, Ajinkya Rahane, despite being out of form and also inconsistent before being dropped had one of the best overseas Test record, averaging over 40 overseas in 50 test matches. Was out of form and dropped ...," the former India seamer added in another tweet.
Despite his poor run with the bat in the longest format of the game, KL has been retained for the remaining two Tests against Australia.
India have retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, after winning the Delhi Test, and Prasad believes Rahul's best chance of coming back to form is the third Test in Indore. The third Test will be played from March 1.
"But with KL being retained for the remaining 2 test matches, if he is picked in the playing 11, Indore is his best chance of coming back to form and silencing critics like me. Else needs to play county cricket, perform well and make a comeback in the Test side," Prasad tweeted.
India's Test squad for the third and fourth Test against Australia: Rohit Sharma (Captain), K L Rahul, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Umesh Yadav and Jaydev Unadkat.
