India batter KL Rahul suffered an injury scare during a match simulation session at the WACA in Perth on Friday morning.

The 32-year-old Rahul opened the batting with Yashasvi Jaiswal as India made their potential plans to replace captain Rohit Sharma who is likely to miss the first Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test against Australia at the Perth Stadium starting in a week.

According to reporters at the venue, Rahul was hit on his right below off a bumpy short delivery from seamer Prasidh Krishna. Though he tried to resume his batting after some help from the physio, Rahul decided to walk off the field.

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

The Karnataka batter has been riding a rough patch after being initially slated for a middle-order spot before India’s home Test series against New Zealand with the backing from captain Rohit and head coach Gautam Gambhir.

Rahul was, however, dropped after the first Test in Bengaluru before India suffered a harrowing 3-0 series defeat. He was then drafted into the India A squad for the second unofficial game recently against Australia A in Melbourne.

Rahul had a torrid outing after he was moved back to the top of the order in an opening audition alongside Abhimanyu Easwaran, who was picked in India’s Test squad as back-up for Rohit. Rahul managed scores of 4 and 10 while also being criticised for a comical dismissal against spinner Corey Rocchiccioli, offering no shot to a fuller delivery that castled him around his legs.

Rahul, who averages 33.87 after 51 Tests, has only aggregated 187 runs in nine innings in Australia.