LONDON, (Reuters) – In-form India opener KL Rahul backed his struggling team mates Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane to come out of their slump in form in the ongoing test series against England.
Pujara has been without a fifty in his last 10 test innings, looking a shadow of the player who was the architect of India’s 2019 test series victory in Australia, the first by an Asian side.
Number five batsman Rahane has now gone seven innings since his last fifty, scoring five and one in his two innings in the five-test series.
Skipper Virat Kohli has not been at his prolific best either, but showed signs of regaining his form with a fluent 42 in the first innings of the ongoing second test at Lord’s.
“Pujara and Ajinkya are fabulous players and they’ve done the job for Team India every time the team was in trouble,” Rahul said after England reached 119-3 in their first innings on Friday.
“They are world class players. I’m sure they are hungry to go out there and score some runs and do the job for the team.”
Rahul followed his stellar 84 in the drawn Nottingham test with an elegant 129 at Lord’s, where India were cruising at 267-2 before the middle order caved in and they were all out for 364. The opener said facing the swinging ball in English conditions was not an easy task but was optimistic Pujara and Rahane would find ways to master the challenge.
“They are experienced players, they know how to come out of a couple innings where they have not scored runs,” said Rahul.
“We need to accept that in England, we’d get good balls, and we’re not going to go out and score runs in every inning and in every game. So once you get a start, you make it count.”
