KL Rahul urged to play with purpose and improve his temperament after disappointing 1st innings performance

Team India's batting lineup struggled in the first innings of the opening Test against Bangladesh, with the team in trouble at 37/3 after being put in to bat in overcast conditions in Chennai. Yashasvi Jaiswal (56) and Rishabh Pant (39) staged a recovery, but India faced an uphill battle as the match progressed.

Following Pant's departure, regular wickets began to fall again, with KL Rahul's departure on 16 putting India under pressure again; the side was left reeling at 144/6 before Ravichandran Ashwin, alongside Ravindra Jadeja, produced a masterclass in counter-attacking batting, taking India to a strong score of 339/6 by the end of the day's play.

However, India's poor effort with the bat didn't go unnoticed and former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar spoke about KL Rahul in particular, addressing his recurring ‘temperamental’ issues after his failure in the first innings. Despite having made a comeback to the Test side after missing the England series, the right-handed batter seemed a shadow of his former self as he failed to settle in on a challenging pitch.

Manjrekar, in his assessment, noted that this has been a familiar pattern throughout Rahul's career. While Rahul delivered a brilliant 86 in his last Test outing against England, he didn't look comfortable throughout his stay at the crease in the Chennai Test. Manjrekar highlighted the inconsistency in Rahul’s temperament, suggesting that even when the runs come, the batter often appears uneasy.

"Completely understandable that they went for KL Rahul, It was just about experience, class, and recent form - the century in South Africa and an 80 in the only Test he played against England. But this is KL Rahul's story; it is amazing that he plays a brilliant innings at the Test level, and in the next two to three innings, it seems like he has got a pair in the last Test. Even when you saw him bat today, it almost seemed an innings without purpose," Manjrekar told ESPNcricinfo.

"That is more of a temperamental problem with KL Rahul that has plagued him for 50 Test matches because the numbers that he has, while he has got some brilliant hundreds, an average of 34 with quite a few 100s in testing conditions tells you about his temperament, which we got a look at today as well," the former right-hand batter added.

In the first session of Day 2, India did face an early blow as Jadeja was dismissed without adding a run to his previous day's score of 86, but Ashwin continued to stay strong in the middle. Akash Deep joined Ashwin at the crease, and by the time of writing, India had reached 366/7 in 88 overs.