Reports: KL Rahul likely to get another chance; Prithvi Shaw to warm the bench again

Team India has already lost the ongoing five-match Test series against England. The scoreline of 3-1 doesn’t suggest the way they’ve competed but the consistent failure of a few players have cost them the series big time. One of them is KL Rahul who has played in all the four Test matches but has failed to go past the 50-run mark. There were calls of him being dropped for the fifth and final game for Prithvi Shaw.

According to the reports in the Times of India, KL Rahul is likely to get another chance if the net session of the Indian team is taken into consideration. He was the first to enter the nets on Wednesday and then practised slip catching with the cordon before batting again for a considerable period of time. On the other hand, Shaw didn’t get much chance to bat which indicates that the youngster will be benched again and will have to wait for his chance.

Rahul’s form with the bat

KL Rahul is the only Indian opener to play in all the four Tests so far. But he hasn’t lived up to the expectations adding only 113 runs in eight innings at a mediocre average of 14.12. His amazing slip catching might have given him a nod ahead of the others. Rahul has been superb with his reflexes in the cordon and has taken 11 catches so far with seven of them coming in the third Test at Trent Bridge which India won.

In the meantime, Murali Vijay was dropped from the squad after the third game for his continuous failures overseas this year. Even Shikhar Dhawan didn’t play at Lord’s which means the team retained faith in Rahul and hoped for him to improve as the series progressed.

There was an improvement in his game and he spent more time in the middle compared to the first few matches. However, he was unable to convert his starts and when it mattered, got out early only to increase the calls of him to be axed for the young Shaw who has been raking runs and putting pressure on the non-performing players.

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