Powerless against Proteas: KL Rahul's Test misery vs SA decoded amid home series debacle

KL Rahul flopped vs SA [Source: AFP]

Veteran Indian batter KL Rahul had a torrid run in the home series against South Africa. After the visitors set a daunting target of 549 runs, India had two major setbacks early into their innings, losing both their openers in quick succession. While Jaiswal became Marco Jansen's victim yet again, Rahul was castled by Simon Harmer's peach in the tenth over. 

KL Rahul's Test record vs SA: What do the numbers tell?

(KL Rahul's Test record vs SA)

• As evidenced by the above stats, KL Rahul has been nowhere close to his best while facing South Africa in Test cricket. 
• While his overall Test average hovers in the mid-30s, Rahul has just 437 runs across 17 outings against the Proteas, registering a horrible average of 25.70. 
• In fact, among India's top six batters with more than five Tests against South Africa, KL Rahul has the fourth-worst average after Shikhar Dhawan, Wasim Jaffer and Murali Vijay. 
• Additionally, KL Rahul has also struggled to dominate the Proteas, recording his worst strike rate against them among all teams that he has faced in Test cricket. 

KL Rahul vs SA: Failures sandwiched by two quality knocks

(KL Rahul vs SA in home and away conditions)

• Before South Africa's ongoing India tour, KL Rahul hadn't played a single Test against them on home soil. He has blown hot and cold in the rainbow nation. 
• Although Rahul has registered three fifty-plus scores, including two high-class tons on tricky wickets, his overall record in South Africa sums up his middling returns in the country. 
• Rahul has mostly failed to thrive in South African conditions, recording nine scores of less than 20 runs out of 13 occasions. Despite having all the ingredients to succeed as a Test batter in seam-friendly conditions, Rahul's inability to convert his starts into significant scores has hampered his overall numbers in South Africa. 

Why KL Rahul has repeatedly flopped vs SA?

• Mostly played in SA: KL Rahul has played seven out of nine Tests against the Proteas in South Africa. Considering he's a top-order batter, Rahul has mostly faced the new ball under challenging conditions. In fact, one of his two hundreds against South Africa came while batting at number six. So, tricky batting conditions could be the reason why he has an underwhelming record in the African country. 
• More grind with minimal yields: Despite surviving more than 30 balls on five occasions, apart from those outings where he ended up scoring fifty-plus runs, Rahul has failed to convert his starts into big scores. Although he played out the tough spells in those games, Rahul missed the opportunity of chipping in with crucial contributions. 

Final thought: A missed opportunity that KL Rahul will regret

India's home series was a golden opportunity for Rahul to improve his record against the South Africans. However, the experienced campaigner let his team down, emerging as a major reason behind India's most-talked-about batting failure. 

Along with Rishabh Pant, Rahul, one of India's Test veterans, was expected to lead the run charts. But unfortunately, his spin woes led to his downfall, with Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer dismissing him thrice out of four times. 

Also, had Rahul lived up to the expectations, it could've boosted his home record as well as overall numbers in Test cricket. A player of Rahul's calibre should ideally average in the higher 40s; so, the South Africa series is nothing short of a missed opportunity and might dent Rahul's self-confidence ahead of the three-match ODI series, where he will lead the Indian side. 

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