India vs Australia: Sanjay Bangar Slams KL Rahul For Reckless Shot-Selection In Warm-Up Match

Team India's much-awaited Test series against Australia is just a few days away but it seems that the form of KL Rahul still remains a conundrum for the visitors. Rahul, whose superb hundred against England at The Oval secured his place for the Test series Down Under, played a poor shot, driving on the up, to find mid-off in the sixth over of the day of India's only practice match before the Test series. Five Indian batsmen struck half-centuries and enjoyed useful time in the middle after the rain swamped Sydney on Wednesday. However, Rahul remained India's most notable failure. Facing an inexperienced attack containing a total of 36 first-class wickets with D'Arcy Short accounting for 16 of them, Rahul opened the batting with Prithvi Shaw but was dismissed by seamer Jackson Coleman for 3 runs with just 16 runs on the board. At close of play, India batting coach Sanjay Bangar addressed the media and it seemed that he is running out of patience with Rahul.

"He has been looking in good shape, including today, it is just that he is finding new ways to get out," Bangar said.

"Even today, the ball was quite far and he played it away from his body and lost his wicket. But what we are reading is, he is playing the ball well and he is one hit away. We know his ability and if he converts that to performances then it is important for the team," Bangar said.

"He is not a young player anymore and he is on his second tour here. He has played 30 Tests and he has a responsibility. We expect him to play with that responsibility and play his role for the team."

After torrential rain washed out the opening day of play at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Wednesday, India were keen to get in the middle for some batting practice in their only game ahead of the four-Test series.

Impressive young opener Prithvi Shaw, Cheteshwar Pujara, skipper Virat Kohli, Hanuma Vihari and Ajinkya Rahane all also managed half-centuries.

CA XI were on 24 without loss at stumps.

India will play Australia in the first Test of the four-match series, starting from December 6 in Adelaide.

Topics mentioned in this article

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