Before this series, Rahul had converted four of his five fifties into hundreds. But in the on-going series, the India opener despite getting good starts failed to convert into a big one.

The 24-year old has been, by far, the best Indian batsman in the series and has taken the attack to the opposition.

Rahul tackled the raw pace of Mitchell Starc, negotiated the dead accurate Josh Hazlewood and changed gears against spinners effortlessly.

The opener’s batting armory is filled with a range of shots and the manner in which he executes gives a glimpse of the confidence of the man who is having immense self-belief.

However, the very same audacious shots have brought his downfall and most importantly took the momentum away from India.

At first, Rahul's false shot cost India the Pune Test as Virat Kohli and his men imploded after the opener threw his wicket away.

India were slowly gaining control at 94/3 with Rahul batting on 64. Suddenly, Rahul had an adrenaline rush and danced down the track only to inflict pain in his shoulder.

It was a shot that triggered a dramatic collapse as India lost the opening bout of the Border-Gavaskar series by a massive 333 runs.

In the Bengaluru Test, Rahul batting on 90 had the chance to not only score a hundred in his home ground but also provide India some impetus.

India were eight down, trailing by 87 runs and Rahul went for a swanky cover drive as India were bundled out for a paltry 189. Thankfully, Rahul’s rush of blood didn’t cost India the Test match as the home side won the second Test.

In Ranchi, Rahul did all the hard work but on 67 he was undone by a brilliant slower bouncer by Pat Cummins.

The Ranchi dismissal was the only instance where one would sympathize with Rahul as in the rest of the cases, it's the India opener who has to blame himself.

Coming to the decider in Dharamsala, Rahul and Cheteshwar Pujara batted brilliantly and blunted a testing Australian attack.

The absence of Virat Kohli meant Rahul who has been India's stand-out batter had to stay put and convert his start into a big one. But unlike Cheteshwar Pujara, Rahul's inability to convert his starts into game-changing scores hurt India.

The Cummins-Rahul battle was on and it was the Australian pacer who had the last laugh. Cummins intimidated, taunted and eventually forced Rahul to play a false pull shot that he was never in control of.

The ball hit the toe end of Rahul's bat and ballooned to David Warner at mid-off as the solid 87-run stand was broken - most importantly opened the doors for Australia.

"Generally within the batting group, over the last 18 to 20 months, we have been so used to batting with five batsmen wherein all the batsmen have made that conscious effort to look beyond their personal landmarks," India batting coach Sanjay Bangar had said after India's first innings of the Bengaluru Test.

"It's not being happy with a 50 or 100 but batsmen who are wanting to go that extra mile, put in the hard work and play a big innings which will have an eventual impact on the state of the match.

If Bangar sounded a warning, India skipper Virat Kohli lavished praise on the youngster and gave an impression that a big score was just round the corner.

"I think the last three innings have been his best three innings so far. And I told him this, you'll cherish the ones that you don't get hundreds in, but they're so valuable for the team and you'll understand their importance later," Kohli said after India's victory in Bengaluru.

"He wants to convert his own starts into big hundreds, which he's done in the past. He's shown a lot of character and I'm sure in the coming games, he'd like to push that score forward and put the team into a more consolidating position," Kohli added.

In Dharamsala, Rahul had a perfect opportunity to stamp his authority and help India wipe out the deficit. But, he failed as India at stumps were on a precarious position still trailing by 52 runs with four wickets in hand.

The team management is certainly behind the 24-year old and all that he needs to do is to rewind his mind back to the Chennai Test where he slammed a brilliant 199 against England.

Rahul's blow-hot, blow-cold Test career is certainly frustrating. But for a player of his ability, India will hope the opener puts a price on his wicket and start churning daddy hundreds.