Venkatesh Prasad fires fresh salvo at KL Rahul amid lean run, shares his Test match stats

The veteran, however, feels that Rahul has a good chance of coming back to form in the third Test, which begins in Indore on March 1.

Former India seamer Venkatesh Prasad has come out hard on the struggling India opener KL Rahul for his inconsistent performances in the longest format of the game, saying his selection in the Test side is not based on performance but favouritism.

Taking to twitter to bash Rahul's selection, the 53-year-old pointed out that the right-hander has been in a lean patch over a prolonged period of time, which is the reason behind his underwhelming average.

''There is a view that KL Rahul has an outstanding overseas Test record. But stats speak otherwise. He has a test avg of 30 overseas in 56 innings. He has scored 6 overseas centuries but followed it up with a string of low scores that's why averaging 30. Let's look at a few others,'' he wrote.

He brought up veteran Shikhar's solid overseas records, pointing out his average of 'nearly 40, with 5 100s'. ''Shikhar Dhawan has the best overseas average amongst recent openers. Avg of nearly 40 with 5 100's. Though he too hasn't been consistent in Test but had Outstanding centuries in SL and NZ, plus a much better home record,'' he wrote in another tweet.

Venkatesh Prasad, who was sacked by BCCI earlier, further pointed out that young opener Shubman Gill averages 37 in his brief overseas run in Tests, with the knock of 91 against Australia at The Gabba in Brisbane being "one of the best overseas fourth innings".

The veteran, however, feels that Rahul has a good chance of coming back to form in the third Test, which begins in Indore on March 1.

Meanwhile, far as the out-of-form Rahul is concerned, head coach Rahul Dravid said that the team management would like to give him a longer run. The 30 year old has been in the news for his prolonged bad form with the bat.

India's Test squad for third and fourth Test against Australia: Rohit Sharma (captain), KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat.

India's ODI squad for series against Australia: Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, K L Rahul, Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya (Vice-captain), Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umran Malik, Shardul Thakur, Axar Patel, Jaydev