KL Rahul, the man for all seasons
Mumbai: Harry Brook drops out of IPL. Enter KL Rahul at No.4. Faf du Plessis is passed unfit on match day morning. Enter KL Rahul the opener.
We’ve seen this script play out before. Rohit Sharma misses the Perth Test due to paternity leave. KL Rahul is slotted in as opener. India wants to promote Axar Patel as a floater in the Champions Trophy. Rahul drops a spot down, from No.5 to 6.
When teams pick Rahul, they don’t do it for a particular number (to bat in); they know he can slot in at any position with ease. Apart from the fact that he can also multitask, as a wicketkeeper. It’s a great trait to possess, one that will give Rahul the edge in selections. This, apart from his captaincy experience.
As Rahul enters his second decade in elite cricket, he might want to ask himself, what really is his core competence? His 51-ball 77 was the defining innings in DC’s 183, which helped beat CSK after restricting the home team to 158 on Saturday. Would it have had the same meaning if it had come in a 200-plus run fest? Halfway through DC’s innings, out of the 82/2, Rahul had contributed 29 in 23 balls. On another day, he might have been dismissed before switching gears. He would then be painted the villain of the piece. Rahul has seen that play out too.
Rahul has led in Test cricket, ODI cricket, led Punjab Kings, LSG. Today, he is not chosen for a leadership role. The wicket-keeper batter might want to ask himself if he can carve a niche for himself, one so good that no matter what the dire necessity is, teams don’t displace him from his primary role.
In his first outing for DC, the fifth IPL franchise he has played for, Rahul walked in at No.4 and struck a 5-ball 15. He batted without a care in the world. A drastically different task to be opening in the afternoon Chennai sun where he almost batted through the innings at a SR of 150. One may assume Rahul will continue to open even when du Plessis returns. Unless the DC think tank wants to stay invested in Jake Fraser-McGurk. Rahul then will go back to the middle order, left to process the match situation and react.
“I don’t think it is difficult for someone of his calibre…if I made someone else do that, I understand it would not be easy for a batter to shift,” said DC head coach Hemang Badani. “KL’s also got the understanding of the game to go up the order or bat at No.4.”
Rahul has scored most of his IPL runs as opener. It is also where he’s been critiqued the most, for not keeping up with the changing pace of the game. At least, Rahul is looking to break out of the mould.
“I think somewhere along the way I lost that fun of hitting boundaries and sixes. I wanted to take the game deep, deep, deep and that somehow stuck in my head. Now, I have realised I need to go back…cricket’s changed, and T20 cricket, especially, is only about hitting boundaries. The team that hits more boundaries and sixes ends up winning,” Rahul told team mentor Kevin Pietersen in a chat.
“So back to enjoying my cricket. I am not thinking about taking it deep, none of that stuff. Just see ball and try and be aggressive and put the pressure on the bowler and the opposition, and just enjoy hitting boundaries.”
Pietersen once said, “watching KL bat is like watching paint dry”. Rahul reminded his coach about it, just to be sure he had changed his opinion. Rahul striving to bat on a higher gear from the start of his innings is something that has been in the works for the past year. He had also prepared to open the batting. With the experience and learnings from his up-and-down cricket career, Rahul will hope he gets his wish to achieve something substantial, at least belatedly in his career.
