KL Rahul refused to play Rajkot Test after being declared fit by NCA

Injury is not the only reason behind KL Rahul‘s absence from action, according to reports. The India star has missed the last two Tests against England and is also out of the upcoming fourth game of the five-match series.

He was sidelined after suffering a quadricep strain in the first Test in Hyderabad. Apart from him, Ravindra Jadeja was also sidelined after suffering a hamstring injury in the series-opener. Both the players were included in the squad for the last three Tests although the BCCI announced that their participation will depend on their fitness.

Jadeja recovered in time for the third Test but KL Rahul did not. After the third Test in Rajkot, India captain Rohit Sharma delivered a promising update on the batter, saying that ‘he should be okay’ for the fourth Test in Ranchi. Almost a week before Rohit’s update, the BCCI had stated that the Karnataka star ‘has reached 90 percent of match fitness’.

Unsurprisingly, he was expected to be fit for the upcoming fourth Test, scheduled to start from February 23. However, the BCCI, on Tuesday (February 20), announced that the batsman is out of the Test and his participation in the fifth Test is not confirmed as well.

“KL Rahul is ruled out of the 4th Test. His participation in the final Test match in Dharamsala is subject to fitness,” the BCCI stated.

Why is KL Rahul not playing?

According to a report in CricketNext, injury is not the sole reason behind KL Rahul’s absence. The report stated that the star batsman did recover fully before the third Test in Rajkot but was not ‘confident enough to return to the field’ for that crucial game.

There was a gap of more than a week between the second and third Test and KL Rahul had enough time to recover. Although he was progressing well and was close to returning to action, he eventually decided against it. Talking about the series, India thrashed England by a record 434 runs to take a 2-1 lead in the five-match series.