KL Rahul: A case of neither here nor there
When KL Rahul came on to the scene he was in the Rahul Dravid mould. In fact, due to his technique and temperament, he was touted to be the next Rahul Dravid. He scored a hundred in his second Test, that too in testing conditions of Australia, it was a typical Test match innings. He was patient at the start of the inning and as the inning went on he grew in confidence and played his shots.
This was a perfect start for Rahul. He was destined to be the next big thing in Indian Test cricket.
Then T-20 cricket happened, Rahul, whose game was not suitable to the slam-bang approach of T-20 cricket, tried to mould his game according to the needs of T-20 cricket. That is where we lost the old, Test match specialist KL Rahul.
Nowadays, he is one of the most devastating batsmen in T-20 cricket. During the last IPL, he scored 659 runs in 14 matches at a strike rate of 158.4, which is mammoth. KL Rahul can play all around the ground, he can be innovative whenever he wants to. He has the ability to play big shots to both spinners and pacers. That augurs really well for his T-20 career, but, what about the longest form of cricket.
After initial success, Rahul is struggling in Test cricket. A batsman who has the technique to play on swinging, seaming and bouncy pitches, is struggling in overseas conditions. This is evident from his recent performances in South Africa and England. In South Africa, he scored a total of 30 runs from 4 Test innings at an average of 7.5, which is poor by any standard. He is struggling in England as well, so far, he has scored 113 runs from 8 innings with an average of 14.1.
His technique remains sound, so what is the reason for his downfall in Test cricket.
His approach towards batting has changed. He has lost the patience that is required to play in testing conditions. There are a lot of world-class batsmen who seamlessly transit their game from the demand of T-20 cricket to rigours of Test cricket. But, Rahul is finding it difficult.
After observing his modes of dismissal during the last few innings, it becomes clear that his temperament is letting him down. He plays patiently during the first 30 balls or so. Plays the ball on merit, watches it closely and leaves the balls that are wide of off stump. But, his patience soon runs out, due to which he starts chasing the deliveries outside off stump and closes the face of the bat too soon. He often gets bowled through the gate, which implies that he is leaving a big gap between bat and pad.
It becomes evident that he wants to break the shackles, play his strokes and dominate the bowling as he does in T-20 cricket.
Demands of Test cricket are different, it requires you to grind for hours and hours without letting your concentration slip. As Sunil Gavaskar often says "give first few hours to the bowlers and rest of the day is yours".
To be a successful Test batsman Rahul doesn't have to look outside, he just needs to rediscover his old self. Otherwise, the time is running out.