XtraTime Web Desk: India’s opening batsman KL Rahul was under tremendous pressure ahead of the beginning of the Test series against Australia and now his form in Australia isn’t helping him and his team as well. Australia has given India a target of 287 runs to win the second Test and when everyone started thinking that Rahul would finally do well in the second innings but he again failed miserably and was dismissed on a duck by Aussie star pacer Mitchell Starc. While doing this he also matched an unwanted record with legendary Sunil Gavaskar.
Rahul has now been dismissed ‘bowled’ seven times out of his last 11 Test innings. With the dismissal in the second innings, he equalled Gavaskar’s record – Indian openers dismissed ‘bowled’ most times in both the innings of a Test (three times). While for Gavaskar, it spaned over 125 Test matches, for Rahul, it has been in only 33 Tests.
An out-of-form Rahul played on to his stumps off Mitchell Starc on the fourth ball of the innings to be dismissed for a duck and was soon followed by the in-form Pujara, who gloved a sharp short ball from Josh Hazlewood to be caught behind. Chasing 287, the onus was on Virat Kohli and Murali Vijay to steady the India innings.