AUS-A vs IND-A: KL Rahul Fails First MCG Audition As Opener, Dismissed For 4 In 2nd Unofficial Test

AUS-A vs IND-A: India A's star batter KL Rahul failed as an opener during the second unofficial Test against Australia A as he got out after scoring just four runs on Thursday. Rahul, who was part of the team of the three-match Test series against New Zealand, was included in India A's squad for the second unofficial Test.

This decision was made to give Rahul and Jurel some game time ahead of the five-match Test series against Australia. Rahul had played just the series opener against New Zealand and although he was fully backed from the team management, he was not selected in the playing XI of the second and the third match, due to his lean patch. He had scored 0 and 12 runs in the first Test match against New Zealand and thus the second unofficial Test match against Australia A has become quite important for him.

Considering that Rohit Sharma is all set to miss the series opener in Perth, KL Rahul did have a chance to perform brilliantly and grab the opener's slot, a position where he had scored 2551 runs. India A had a shaky start on Thursday as they were in deep trouble during the first over itself.

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Michael Neser took the wicket of Abhimanyu Easwaran and Sai Sudharsan on the first two balls and left the Men in Blue tottering at 4/2 during the first over itself. Rahul smashed a brilliant four in Scott Boland's over but his stay at the crease was short-lived as he got out on the third ball of the over and that left the visitors reeling at 11/3.

Neser then took his third wicket by dismissing India A skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad, who too is going through a rough patch with the bat as he also failed during both the innings of the series opener.

Devdutt Padikkal and Dhruv Jurel helped the team bounce back by stitching a gritty partnership of 53 runs in Melbourne. Padikkal scored 26 off 55 balls but Nesser then took his wicket before lunch. Jurel then held the innings from one end as India A was 65/5, where Nitish Kumar Reddy was the new batter. Jurel had scored an unbeaten knock of 24 runs.