Meandering along fringes, KL Rahul finds home in middle-order again
As KL Rahul smashed Nandre Burger behind point on the last ball of the 52nd over, the crowd at the SuperSport Park in Centurion awaited the boundary check with bated breath. As soon as the umpire signalled it as a six, there was a thunderous round of applause all around the stadium.
Rahul raised his bat towards the dressing room and while there was a sense of relief in his body language, there was also a sense of consciousness that the job was not done yet and that he had to add as many runs as possible. That's exactly the kind of response the Indian team would have hoped for when Rahul was picked as a wicketkeeper-batter.
With Ishan Kishan unavailable due to personal reasons, KL Rahul got an opportunity to make his Test comeback in a rather unfamiliar position. In the 81 innings that Rahul had batted in the longest format for India before Tuesday, only once did he bat at No. 6, that too being a forgettable Test debut where he scored just 3.
However, there has been a significant difference between that youngster who walked out to bat for the first time in Tests nine years ago, and the one who took guard on Tuesday at Centurion. There was a sense of positivity that it might work out this time, and KL Rahul raising the bat was just an affirmation of what shifting to middle-order has done to his international career.
KL Rahul's mindset has undergone a fundamental change post his injury comeback
KL Rahul was understandably gutted when he snapped his tendon during the IPL 2023 season and was going to be out for a long time. While he wasn't available for selection in the World Test Championship (WTC) final, there were doubts about whether he would be considered in the playing XI even if he was fully fit.
Rahul had a horrific 2023 Border Gavaskar Trophy and it seemed like he couldn't buy a run, eventually being replaced by Shubman Gill. He seemed to have gone in a shell of being so ultra-defensive that it became almost impossible to fathom where his next fifty would come from.
However, something clicked for KL Rahul at the NCA as he seems to be in a completely different headspace since his Asia Cup comeback. In his very first game, Rahul smashed a hundred against Pakistan and he just hasn't looked back ever since.
He had a sensational 2023 World Cup as a wicketkeeper-batter and looked like a real leader on the park, having a chat with his spinners and trying to get the crowd involved. It was almost as if someone had pressed a reset button at the NCA and here was a talented cricketer with no baggage of past failure.
Rahul's 66 off 105 balls in the final against Australia remains a topic of debate concerning the strike rate. However, it had to do more with India's lack of batting depth and also the pitch being one where it was difficult to score runs at a quick rate.
It arguably didn't have anything to do with the mindset, a word that's associated a lot with KL Rahul. He led the ODI team to a series win in South Africa with the same strong mindset and became just the second Indian captain to achieve the feat on South African soil.
With all this happening in the build-up to the Boxing Day Test, it shouldn't be a surprise that Rahul showed the mental strength to absorb all the pressure on one of the most difficult wickets you can get as a batter away from home.
Self-belief in decision-making a welcome addition to Rahul's repertoire
KL Rahul couldn't get off the mark on the first seven deliveries that he faced, with Kagiso Rabada bowling with his tail up from one end. As someone who has been picked for a new role, Rahul could have easily gotten carried away in a bid to get off the mark.
However, he waited for the right ball and opened his account with a sensational pull shot to the square leg boundary. The control with which Rahul kept the ball down, that too from a red-hot Rabada, showed the kind of form that the right-hander has been in.
Being the set batter, he was happy to play second-fiddle to Shardul Thakur. But once the all-rounder was dismissed and Jasprit Bumrah survived the remainder of Coetzee's over, Rahul smashed the very first ball of the next over for a boundary through the covers and made his intentions pretty clear.
Another reason why the No. 6 role suits KL Rahul was the way he was able to farm the strike with Bumrah initially and then with Mohammed Siraj. Rahul maintained a fine balance between trusting his partners at the other end and also cashing in on the opportunity of a boundary if there was scope.
The frustration had started to creep in from South Africa's point of view as Marco Jansen even tried to sledge Rahul. But how the right-hander responded with a smile showed that he wasn't going to get perturbed by anything.
The cracking six on the grass banks through an extension of the cover drive was just the icing on the cake as far as Rahul's domination against Jansen was concerned. The clarity in his shot selection, coupled with the solid technique that he always had being an opener, has taken his self-belief to the next level.
It won't be wrong to think that destiny has been kind to KL Rahul in terms of the chances he has got to keep making a comeback. In the 2021 tour of England, it was the concussion injury to Mayank Agarwal in the nets that made Rahul open the innings, where he formed a formidable opening partnership with Rohit Sharma.
There was a lot of talk about the team management at that point thinking of playing Rahul as a middle-order batter. After more than two years, another window of opportunity opened for the right-hander and his innings on Tuesday just reiterated why he has been backed in this position.
Another aspect of the challenge is awaiting KL Rahul as he will need to keep wickets for a longer duration than he ever has in white-ball cricket. However, at least with the bat, Rahul proved just why he remains on the fringes of the Test team despite having modest overall numbers.
An incredible rearguard effort at the same venue where he got a Boxing Day Test hundred two years ago, it's almost like destiny has given KL Rahul a hint that perhaps the middle order should be where he should find a home.
Only time will tell whether Rahul can make a permanent spot for himself in the Test team, especially once Rishabh Pant is back. But one thing is for certain - with a significant change in mindset already, KL Rahul 2.0 can unlock the world-class levels once promised if he dumped opening for good.