KL Rahul's second coming
The entire country was wowed by KL Rahul’s watchful 110 against Australia at Sydney in 2014/15. Here was a young Indian batsman, barely 22, scoring an overseas century against a formidable Aussie bowling unit, in only his second Test.
And when you consider what preceded that century - two single digit scores thanks to two awful shots at the MCG - you get an idea of the mettle this Karnataka batsman possesses.
Rahul was chided and trolled to the fullest on social media after those uncharacteristic twin dismissals in Melbourne; but he took them in his stride and found success against all odds in the very next Test. It was KL Rahul beaming with confidence and experience after scoring tons of runs at first-class level.
Initial success followed by some ups and downs
Despite doing well as a Test opener during the 2016/17 season, with centuries in the West Indies, a career-best 199 in Chennai, and a string of six successive half centuries, Rahul's woes started in the 2018 tour to South Africa and only compounded during the tour of England the same year.
Despite that 149 at the Oval in his final innings of the tour, he had a torrid time throughout the English red-ball tour. Modest returns vs West Indies at home and also on the tour Down Under saw the right-handed batsman find himself on the verge of being dropped from the test team.
The incoming delivery incessantly gave him nightmares and was often his nemesis. Thanks to Prithvi Shaw’s doping ban, he got another opportunity to make amends during a tour to the Caribbean islands in 2019.
But after surviving initial bursts from the West Indian quicks in Antigua, Rahul fell to an innocuous delivery from Chase for a well-made 44. In the second innings, too, he fell after a start (38). Two failures in the next Test at Jamaica, where he played an awful innings of 6 off 63 balls in the second essay, was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Eventually, after an extended run of a year-and-a-half despite a lean patch, Rahul was rightly left out of India’s Test team.
The second wind – 2021 England tour
KL Rahul’s purple patch in both the white-ball formats and the Indian think tank’s immense belief in his potential meant he was back in the Test squad for the tour of Australia despite barely playing any first-class cricket.
Though an injury delayed his comeback in Australia, a freakish injury to his best friend and Karnataka teammate Mayank Agarwal on the eve of the first Test at Nottingham gave Rahul an opportunity exactly two years later.
On a pitch that was doing a lot initially, Rahul curbed his instincts and remained watchful for hours. This was Rahul of the pre-2016 era. The one thing that was conspicuous from his batting technique was the way he left the ball outside the off stump. He knew where his off stump was, and passed the English bowlers’ examination with flying colours.
His unique knack of watching the ball till the end and playing inside the line of the ball attracted experts’ plaudits. He hardly poked at any delivery outside the off stump and also made sure he played a few unplayable probing deliveries with soft hands.
His rock solid back-foot defence addressed his woes against the incoming delivery. Though he was dropped on a couple of occasions after his 50, he didn’t let that affect his concentration. He got on with business and scored a painstaking 84 off 214 balls before getting out to James Anderson.
Even in the second innings, he was stroking the ball well before getting out to a jaffa from Stuart Broad. His 26 off 38 balls quickly got India off the blocks and set them up for what would have likely been a fairly straightforward final-day chase.
The Lord’s century that sealed KL Rahul's spot
At Lord’s, batting on a fresh pitch on Day 1, KL Rahul showed a lot of character yet again. Despite having all the shots in his repertoire and seeing his partner Rohit Sharma going all guns blazing, Rahul remained in his shell.
He had scored only 18 runs off his first 100 balls. Well, that takes some discipline from a man who’s got the quickest IPL half-century off just 14 balls.
Initially, by playing shots - predominantly defensive - only in the V, no horizontal bat shots and letting innumerable balls alone, Rahul made a statement by staying sedate. He later hit Moeen Ali for six straight over the bowler's head to break the shackles and there was no stopping him from there.
The elegant right-hander gradually changed gears and started dealing in boundaries. This was vintage KL Rahul. No bowler seemed to trouble him.
The 29-year-old also saw off the second new ball in the dying moments of Day 1, on his way to a sixth Test century, and his first in three years. Finally, the monkey was off his back.
After getting an opportunity by default, Rahul had shown his class and sealed his spot for the near future. He eventually got out for a fabulous 129 off 250 balls, etching his name on the Lord’s honours board in the process.
Although a string of four successive failures followed, there were no obvious technical issues with his batting. He eventually signed off from the tour with a fighting 101-ball 46 in the Oval Test.
His series aggregate of 315 runs was India's second best after Rohit Sharma. And when you consider that he scored all those runs while facing the new ball in alien conditions, he seems to have really come of age.
Rahul’s resurrection is indeed great news for the Indian team. He’s one of those versatile Indian batsmen who can acclimatize and play across formats and produce results.
Rahul has finally arrived and passed the litmus test in England. One can only hope he capitalises on the momentum from here and goes from strength to strength. Go well, Rahul!