Sanjay Manjrekar reveals what has plagued KL Rahul's 50-Test career, hits out at his 'innings without purpose'

Sanjay Manjrekar has reflected on KL Rahul's 50-Test career, and questioned his temperament in the format after he was dismissed for 16, leaving India reeling at 144/6 in the first innings of the first Test between India and Bangladesh in Chennai.

Eyes were on the senior batter to rescue India after the batting collapse but he succumbed to pressure and became the first and only batter to be dismissed by a spinner on Day 1 which was dominated by the pacers.

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Sanjay Manjrekar called KL Rahul's first outing in the 2-Test series an innings without purpose, adding that there was a big psychological block in the mind of KL Rahul.

“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 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.

“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.

“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.

KL Rahul, who is playing his first Test match since January, was inducted in the India playing eleven ahead of Sarfaraz Khan. He has entered the ongoing first Test against Bangladesh on the back of a second innings fifty in the Duleep Trophy 2024.