The demons haunting KL Rahul
KL Rahul is distraught. He swooshes his bat through the air as if he was slapping himself hard across his face for having trashed yet another opportunity to get the scorers busy as if he was warding off a demon that had plagued him for the major part of his international career. On his face, it was written consternation and anguish, consternation because his place in the team was becoming highly untenable; the anguish comes from the frustration of a cricketer who has worked so hard on his game and yet has not gotten the desired results.
His 149 at The Oval a few weeks ago that came against a sinister attack had started to look like an exception rather than a norm, Rahul's celebrations after getting to his century were revealing of the same. He knew without a shadow of a doubt, that he had let himself and his team down after he'd capped off a utopian summer with the Kings XI Punjab as the fourth highest run-scorer in the world's most lucrative T20 league.
Yet, that 149 provided a fresh lease of hope, albeit in a losing cause, which Rahul was expected to carry back to the dustbowls of India and later to Australia, where for the first time in history, India would arguably land as favourites to win a Test match series. But, here he finds himself at Hyderabad, caught unaware of where his off-stump is, unsure of whether to leave the ball or play, frustrated with his recurring failures in national colours.
So what went wrong? Has he, with uncanny ulterior motives, picked an IPL match to record a 50 off 14 deliveries, eventually make 564 runs across 13 matches, and then show up with the national team to perform indifferently for his own titillation? Has he, with resentful smugness, committed some largely immoral sin for which the demons have ripped off his gift of consistency and punished him with inescapable nemeses? Probably, only Rahul would be able to say.
However, as KL himself would agree, it wouldn't take a rocket scientist to fathom that he is facing one of the lowest ebbs of his life. Beneath the helmet, beneath the short hair, beneath the cranium, lies a clouded cerebrum that is worried about its place among the fifteen most talented cricketing brains in a country of 1.3 billion. He is perhaps insecure, understandably so, and it would only take a matter of time before an insecure opening batsman, unsure of his where his off-stump is, is sent backpacking to the dressing room for there is no place for mercy in the sport.
When he was in his groove, he styled his hair, flaunted his beard, fed his pets, and inked his arms. And plundered bowling attacks to all corners of the cricket ground, once going on to register an unprecedented seventh consecutive half-century on an intensely contested Australia tour of India. A year down the lane, Rahul is visibly grouchy, which is partly a blip on the part of the team management as well.
After all, he was once considered to be the front-runner for the incongruous Indian No.4 spot, and Kohli had gone on to describe him as 'too good a player to miss out' before the 2017 Sri Lanka tour. As it happened, Rahul was given only three opportunities in that five-match ODI series and found himself benched for the major part of the home series that followed.
What followed was a depressingly sad case of poor man-handling, which has been synonymous with the Indian team of late, and the uncertainty created by this constant chopping and changing has begun to unveil itself, first in the form of Ajinkya Rahane's struggles, and now of KL Rahul.
The good thing for Rahul is that, unlike Rahane, he has not been getting starts and throwing them away. In 14 of his last 18 Test match innings, he has been dismissed for scores of 25 or less, which can perhaps be treated as consolation; for he was the player who was once backed to get to three-figures if he ever got to 20.
However, 10 out of Rahul's last 12 dismissals (83.33%) against pacers have either been bowled or LBW. Prior to that, only 7 out of his 22 dismissals (31.8%) against pace came in that fashion. That presents a glaring technical error which needs to be fixed sooner than later, ahead of the Australia tour where he is going to be a vital cog in the wheel for the Indian side.
*****
KL Rahul is on cloud nine. Two years have passed since his One-day international debut when he shattered records to become the first Indian international to score a century on debut. Since then, funky casual caps have adorned his head more often than the twelve blue India ODI caps he has gone on to receive.
His century against the West Indies in a T20I at Florida was vindication of his supreme talent and his evolution as a graceful slogger (notice the oxymoron), but for the perpetual, egregious inflexibility that plagues modern day batsmen, the Rahul who was seen to be a Test match specialist slowly blacked out, and in his place came an ingenious T20 maverick, who held his bat away from his body, slashed and scooped and played across the line, and had little strategy to counter the moving ball.
As he walks back to the pavilion, there is a sense of satisfaction in his eyes. In the press conference that follows, he admits to not have been over-thinking, and echoes his captain's belief that he was just hitting the ball sweetly. On the back of that 14-ball half-century, the fastest ever in the IPL, Rahul carried his team on his shoulders, although through an ordinary season, as Kings XI Punjab settled for a fifth-place finish.
At Old Trafford, he roared and growled and unleashed a cornucopia of emotions after scoring an unbeaten 101 off 54 balls, guiding India to victory in the first T20I against England. Even during his worst patches, Rahul's returns in the shortest format of the game never came under question, epitomized by his average of 50.50 on tricky pitches in the T20 series against the same opposition (2017) after he'd made only 24 runs in the ODI series that preceded.
That leaves us with two questions to answer. Has KL Rahul, to adjust to the gruelling demands of modern day three-format cricket, made irrevocable alterations to his technique leading to his debilitation in red ball cricket? If he has, doesn't it render him undeserving of a spot in the XI, especially when a few Agarwals and Vijays are waiting in the wings?
In the fifth Test in England, Rahul unleashed his T20 avatar perhaps in an attempt to slog his way out of trouble. He was ruthless on wide balls and short balls alike and treated the half-volley with impetuous disdain. Incidentally, that was the only innings in which he displayed a shade of positivity, eventually going on to register his second 30+ score in ten innings (no floccinaucinihilipilification; 149 to be precise.) Definitely, Rahul's issue is also technical, conjured up by the beast mode he had switched on, during the IPL.
It is not that he has not been putting in the hard yards. It is not that he has not been forcing himself through the crunches and squats in the gym. Of the many things Rahul has tried to address with the help of batting coach Sanjay Bangar, has been the position of his front-foot while attempting to drive or flick. It was conspicuous that his left leg was pointing towards covers in the first Test as well as the major part of the England series when it ideally should've been towards mid-off. What this does is that it cramps him up for room when the ball tails back in, and an attempted straight drive has to be rushed into an awkward flick. All of it in a nanosecond.
Shikhar Dhawan encountered a similar issue in 2016. The pick-up shot on the leg side, which is today a major part of his destructive armoury, was badly impacted by the front foot pointing in the direction of the covers, and he was constantly getting out bowled to the incoming delivery. His returns in coloured clothing were unacceptable, as India huffed and puffed their way to an Asia Cup title and were then skittled out of the WT20 by eventual champions West Indies.
What the selectors did with him was admirable. They dropped him from the national side for almost a year, partly due to injury and partly due to poor form, and asked him to rediscover his mojo in the domestic circuit, which Shikhar did, and ended up on the flight to England for the Champions Trophy. There, he was the highest run-getter by a margin.
The support that the team management has invested in him of late has been heartening to see. With the recent developments in Indian cricket, the Rahul-Shaw combination for the first Test in Australia seems like an inevitability.
Having said that, India also have a less debated option in Murali Vijay, who has hit a rich vein of form in the English county circuit. But it would be nothing but ludicrous to opt for an untested opening pair in the first game of an all-important tour, and unless Virat Kohli decides to pull a surprise out of the hat, Rahul should find himself walking out to the middle with Shaw on the 6th of December.
But that leaves Rahul with almost no game time in the build-up to the Australia tour. With Rohit, Dhawan and Kohli forming the top order, and India investing their belief in Ambati Rayudu for holding the middle-order together, Rahul is perhaps destined to wait in the sidelines during the WI One-Day series, unless an inauspicious injury pops up or the series scoreline starts to favour the hosts.
In fact, Rishabh Pant finds himself with a greater possibility of making it into the side than KL. This lack of match practice could be a morbid deterrent to his scant confidence, which is why India should look into the matter with seriousness.
Today, as he got off the mark with a lofted six over mid-off, one cannot help but conclude that if there is a way forward for KL Rahul in Test cricket, it is the belligerent, bellicose way. A stint with his domestic side Karnataka would do him a world of good, for it is there that he has his roots, his family, his dog Simba, his mates and his coach.
Rahul needs to let himself off the hook for a while, as his problem is not only technical but also mental. For the lad who was once lauded to be better than Kohli, it would be a great disappointment if Rahul is left out of the squad for the Australia tour. A decisive opening stand will be crucial for India's fortunes Down Under, and Lokesh Rahul, he needs to step up soon.