India opening batter KL Rahul is going through one of the worst phases of his career. For the third consecutive match in the T20 World Cup 2022, Rahul was dismissed for a single-digit score, having scored 4 and 9 in the last two matches. After two poor outings against Pakistan and Netherlands, expectations were huge from Rahul to put an end to his barren patch but all he could deliver was a 9-run knock in the match against the Proteas. As a result, fans resorted to memes and jokes on Twitter as they trolled the batter.
Rahul took a little time before getting started and opened his account with a six on the bowling of Wayne Parnell in the third over. But, he only got to 9 runs off 12 balls before being dismissed by Lungi Ngidi on the last ball of the 5th over.
Here's how fans on Twitter reacted to Rahul's yet another failure with the bat:
Earlier, India had announced one change in the team for the match, selecting Deepak Hooda in place of Axar Patel in the XI. Hood too failed to fire with the bat and was removed by Anrich Nortje for a duck.
"We will bat. It's a good surface, we know what to expect and what to do on this pitch. We had a camp across at the WACA, helped us get used to the bounce for both batters and the bowlers. But this is an important game from where the tournament is, we just have to follow the routine and trust the process, just stay calm and execute the plans. One change - Axar misses out, Hooda is in," Rohit had said at the time of toss.
Even the likes of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya departed for cheap in the match as Proteas pacers rattled India's top-order.