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The two men are set to meet in the preparatory game where both would be looking to polish their skills ahead of the series.
KL Rahul was dropped after the first Test against New Zealand in Bengaluru. (Picture Credit: AFP)
Ahead of the Border-Gavaskar Test series between India and Australia, KL Rahul will be in the spotlight as he will be a part of the India A squad that will be playing in the second unofficial against Australia A at Melbourne on November 7. But the Australian pacer, Scott Boland remains confident on the challenge that lies ahead of him.
The two men are set to meet in the preparatory game where both would be looking to polish their skills ahead of the series.
Boland recalled his experience of playing KL Rahul. While he deems the Indian batter as a ‘world-class’ player, he remains confident in being able to keep him in check for the upcoming game. The pacer has an exceptional record at home where he has picked up 28 wickets in six Tests at an average of 12.21.
“I was lucky to bowl to him in a Test over in India a couple of years ago but it’ll be nice to play against him in our backyard,” he said, as quoted by ESPNCricinfo.
“He’s a world-class player but someone I think we can get on top of pretty early and hopefully stay on top of him for the majority of the summer,” he added.
KL Rahul on the other hand, does not have that great of a record in Australia having played just 5 Tests and scoring 187 runs at an average of 20.77. His most notable knock was the 110 he scored at Sydney in January 2015.
Rahul could be a contender to take the spot of the skipper, Rohit Sharma who could miss one Test while Boland could be called up to the side as a replacement for Australia’s frontline pace-trio of Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc.
He has worked on his recovery following his injury which cancelled his County stint with Durham due to a heel issue that he picked up. Recently he was able to go through 28 overs in the recent Sheffield Shield match against New South Wales, last month.
Both India and Australia will be eager to get the series victory and also improve their chances of qualifying for the World Test Championship (WTC) final for the 2023-25 cycle.
