“An average of 33 in 53 matches is not great” – Aakash Chopra on choosing between KL Rahul and Sarfaraz Khan for IND vs NZ 2024 2nd Test

Former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra has questioned KL Rahul’s consistency in the Test team ahead of the second Test match against New Zealand. Rahul returned with scores of 0 and 12 in the opening Test at Bengaluru and thus could not deliver despite playing at his home ground.

Rahul has scored 2981 runs in 53 Test matches at an average of 33.88 and he hasn’t been consistent enough for the team. On the other hand, Sarfaraz Khan was able to grab his chance with both hands as he scored a fine knock of 150 runs after he was dismissed for a blob in the first innings.

Khan has scored 350 runs in four Test matches at an impressive average of 58.33 in his young career. With Shubman Gill all set to return after recovering from a stiff neck, it will be interesting to note India’s selection.

“This Indian team have followed a philosophy that if the original choice player becomes fit and available, he will return and whoever has played in his place will go out. Secondly, when there was a question before the first Test that who would go at No. 3, the captain and coach said they were feeling very comfortable with playing Rahul at six and they didn’t want to move him,” Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube Channel.

“It seems like they were thinking that it’s a makeshift. Now that Sarfaraz has scored a century and Rahul has failed in the two innings, a big question has come. I was seeing KL Rahul’s numbers. The numbers are not that good. An average of 33 in 53 matches is not great,” Chopra added.

Meanwhile, Rahul has scored 434 runs in the last 10 Test matches and Chopra noted that his record in the previous 10 games is worse than his overall numbers.

“The last 10 matches could actually make or break because he (Rahul) has played 17 innings in them, scored 434 runs, which includes one century which if I remember correctly came in Centurion against South Africa, and the average is just 27. Begs a question that what would happen,” he observed.

The renowned commentator feels it wouldn’t be easy to ignore Sarfaraz Khan and the right-hander might get the nod ahead of KL Rahul.

“It was probably easier to drop Karun Nair because there was a gap of a series in between. You also made Sarfaraz and Dhruv Jurel sit out because there was a lot of time in between. When someone has done well in the last match and your team has lost, and although KL Rahul probably deserves to play one more match, an average of 27 in the last 10 matches, you may say that you are running out of patience,” Chopra elaborated.

India will take on New Zealand in the second Test at Pune from Thursday onwards.