IND vs ENG 1st Test: The mood and method behind KL Rahul, India’s new man for crisis

IND vs ENG 1st Test: The mood and method behind KL Rahul, India’s new man for crisis

Last winter, when Australia toured India, KL Rahul was battling for a spot in the Test side. With a red-hot Shubman Gill waiting in the wings, mid-way through the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, India benched him for the final two Tests. He had gone more than a year without a century in Tests, struggling for runs across conditions. In the time he spent away from the Test side, and especially since his return from injury in August, his stocks have only been increasing. In a period where he has turned into a source of runs, especially in crisis situations, India could no longer overlook him even in Tests.

In South Africa, despite not having kept wicket in a first-class game, he donned the gloves behind the stumps, only because his batting was much needed. It didn’t matter that someone like Ishan Kishan had to miss out. Ahead of the series, before Virat Kohli took a break, head coach Rahul Dravid asserted that Rahul would not keep. But you could sense he was going to make the XI as a batsman. After Ishan, there was a genuine chance for Shreyas Iyer – an attack-minded batsman against spinners – missing out to accommodate Rahul. It didn’t matter, the local conditions haven’t been kind to Rahul, who has scored only one of his eight centuries at home. And that came in 2016 against England on a flat deck in Chennai. His last of his nine fifties at home had come in Afghanistan’s maiden Test in 2018.

But when Rahul walked in at No 4 in the first over of the day, India needed him more than ever before. In their bid to bat once and big, a good morning session was essential. It was the reason he earned a promotion here, ahead of Shreyas Iyer. Off the second ball he faced, Rahul edged Joe Root, but Ben Foakes couldn’t hold on behind the stumps. That the umpire signalled a bye meant even if had caught it, with no reviews left, England couldn’t have overturned the decision.

Stroke of luck

It is perhaps the luck that Rahul needed. He is a tentative starter, but strangely England didn’t bring on Mark Wood or Jack Leach. It helped him settle down. The first sign that he had overcome jitters came off the 18th ball Rahul faced, when he came down the track and lofted Tom Hartely over mid-on. Off the next delivery, he used his feet even better to fetch another boundary at long-on. Those nimble feet of Rahul were moving again and so did India.

Here was a batsman riding a wave of confidence. “The hundred in South Africa gave me confidence,” Rahul told the broadcasters. “Batting is coming out well, I wanted to go out and assess what shots I could play in the conditions. We’ve grown up playing on wickets like this. It’s a bit slow and started to get slower and lower. Had to know what shots to play and wait for the opportunities. I’m enjoying batting in the middle order. You get a bit more time in the dressing room to see what the bowlers are like, what their plans are,” Rahul added.

With all the technical qualities to assert his authority in any conditions, Rahul’s career has been frustrating in the past. He had been showing signs of his calibre every now and then, but since his comeback from the injury, India are seeing the sparkling talent that everyone has been raving about in his younger days on a more frequent basis.

Mr Dependable

If his century at Centurion was a test of character, the 86 showed Rahul has become a dependable player. Like he has done in the ODIs, Rahul is beginning to dictate his own terms in Tests. After an inside-edge that flew to the boundary, a punch standing tall through the covers and an improvised paddle shot to a short-ball fetched him boundaries that immediately put pressure back on England after losing Gill.

Rahul would repeat this pattern after India lost Shreyas Iyer immediately after lunch. Having let the Mumbaikar go for shots and dropping anchor for a while, with new man Ravindra Jadeja in, he would alter his gameplan. With the ball beginning to get softer, and England making attempts to come back into the game by slowing the pace down, Rahul would ensure the momentum stayed with the hosts. The charge would start with a boundary on either side of the square in Rehman Ahmed’s over. The first came via his trademark late-cut. The second, a conventional sweep, scorched the green carpet to the fence. Off Ahmed’s next over, he would show where he stood in terms of his game.

A leg-spinner, who mostly bowls with a scrambled seam, Ahmed’s only mistake was to pitch it in the slot for Rahul to bring out the golf-bat like swing as the ball soared over the long-on fence. Four deliveries later, as Ahmed provided a long hop, he would duly deposit it over the long-on fence. The 65-run partnership came in just 74 deliveries, before Rahul holed out at deep mid-wicket. The wait for a second home century continued, but it appears closer than ever before.

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