Former India head coach Ravi Shastri believes star batter KL Rahul must change his batting temperament to rediscover golden touch. Shastri, while commentating during the ongoing 1st Test against Bangladesh, feels it’s high time Rahul pulls up his socks to rediscover his lost mojo. Rahul is going through a dip in form, with his last Test century coming during India’s tour of South Africa earlier this year. The players also picked up an injury during the home series against England earlier this year, and was fortunate enough to be in the playing XI against Bangaldesh.
Rahul managed a score of 16 in the first innings against Bangladesh, while he was unbeaten on 22 when India captain Rohit Sharma declared the innings with an overall lead of 514.
While he feels that the player has all the potential in the world, Shastri suggested Rahul must change his mindset as it could transform him into a different player.
"KL Rahul needs to realise that he has got much of talent. The day he realises that and comes out with a mindset and thinking in that fashion. He will be a different player," Shastri said on-air during the match.
Former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar recently claimed that the issue with Rahul is entirely temperamental.
"This has been the KL Rahul story. It's amazing that he plays a brilliant innings at the Test level and the next two three innings it seems like he has got a pair in the last Test. Even when you saw him bat today, it almost seemed like an innings without purpose. That can happen, it happened to me in the second half of my career where everything was internal," Manjrekar said on ESPNCricinfo.
Manjrekar cited his own example, as he tried to explain the phase Rahul is going through at the moment.
"I went in to bat just thinking about my technique and am I going to play the ball well, imagining a certain kind of delivery coming my way. And I've got to play instead of going to your instinct as a batter which I think all the other Indian batters practice that is about getting runs. Even if you're defending looking for ones and twos," he added.
Despite being a veteran of 50 Test matches, which have seen Rahul produce some fine hundreds, the batter averages just 34, a big concern for Manjrekar.
"That is more a temperamental problem for KL Rahul that has plagued him for 50 Test matches because the number that he has. He's got some brilliant hundreds but an average of 34. He's got hundreds, not one or two, quite a few and in testing conditions but the average of 34 tells you about his temperament and that we got to look at it today as well," he added.