​​”It almost seemed an innings without purpose” – Sanjay Manjrekar criticises KL Rahul’s batting on Day 1 of IND vs BAN 1st Test 2024

Former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar slammed KL Rahul’s batting on the opening day of the first Test match against Bangladesh at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai on Thursday. Rahul trudged to 16 runs off 52 balls and added 48 runs with Yashasvi Jaiswal.

But Manjrekar noted that Rahul’s knock seemed without any purpose and intent as he was too defensive. Rahul was caught brilliantly at short-leg by Zakir Hasan off the bowling of Mehidy Hasan Miraz.

Rahul has scored 2863 runs in 50 Test matches at an average of 34.08 and he is the only Indian batter who averages below 35 after playing 80 Test innings despite batting in the top six.

Manjrekar observed that Rahul could look a million-dollar on some days but then he plays tentatively, which is hard to understand.

“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 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,” said Manjrekar on ESPN Cricinfo.

The former Indian batter admitted he also had the same mindset when he was only focused on his technique and defending the ball rather than looking to score runs, in the second half of his career.

“And that can happen. It happened to me in the second half of my career when everything was internalised and I went in to bat just thinking about my technique and if I was going to play this ball well, imagining a certain kind of delivery coming in and I have to play it properly, instead of going to your instinct as a batter which I think all the other Indian batters practice is about getting runs. Even when defending, looking for ones and twos,” he added.

Rahul is averaging below 35 in Test matches despite playing 50 matches and Manjrekar reckons it is more of a temperamental issue.

“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,” said Manjrekar.

India finished strongly at 339-6 at stumps on the opening day after unbeaten contributions of 102 and 86 from Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja respectively.