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As per the available information, 32-year-old Rahul didn’t look very comfortable after being struck on his right elbow/forearm off a rising delivery.
KL Rahul suffers injury during intra-squad match. (Picture Credit: Screengrab)
Star batter KL Rahul, who is all set to open for India in the first Test of the upcoming five-match series against Australia, suffered an injury on Friday (November 15) during India’s intra-squad match at WACA Stadium in Perth. In several pictures going viral on the internet, 32-year-old Rahul, who is set to partner Yashasvi Jaiswal at the top in the absence of Rohit Sharma during the first Test at Optus Stadium in Perth from November 22 onwards, suffered a blow on his right elbow.
As per the available information, Rahul didn’t look very comfortable after being struck. He tried to resume batting but failed to do so and was seen leaving the field with physio.
KL Rahul’s not looking very comfortable after being struck on his right elbow/forearm off a rising delivery. Tried to resume batting by shaking it off but clearly couldn’t. And now leaving with the physio #AusvInd pic.twitter.com/JFivRNx7af— Bharat Sundaresan (@beastieboy07) November 15, 2024
Rahul, who made his Test debut for India in Melbourne on December 26, 2014, and scored 110 runs in the first inning of the next match played at Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) from January 6-10, 2015, has 187 runs to his name in five red-ball matches played on Australian soil.
He is expected to get preference over Abhimanyu Easwaran as the replacement of Rohit at the top. Rohit is all set to miss the first Test of the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy due to personal reasons. In Rohit’s absence, star pacer Jasprit Bumrah will lead India in the series opener.
India played the last Test under Bumrah’s captaincy in July 2022 but suffered a defeat by 7 wickets against England at Edgbaston.
India is coming into the five-match Test series against Australia on the back of losing three matches in a row against New Zealand at home. The Kiwis hammered India by 8 wickets in the series opener played at M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru from October 16-20 and then won the next two matches by 113 runs and 27 runs in Pune and Mumbai, respectively.
After losing three Tests against New Zealand, India dropped to No. 2 position in the World Test Championship (WTC) 2023-25 points table. India needs to win at least four Tests against Australia to confirm its place in the top-two of the WTC 2023-25 points table and book a place in the WTC 2025 final at Lord’s next year.
