Can Rahul's middle-order move take him to the top in Test cricket?

Can Rahul’s middle-order move take him to the top in Test cricket?

Posted by author September 18, 2024 Cricket

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DRS showed the ball would be missing. Dean Elgar was no longer lbw. India were incensed. “Whole country against 11 guys,” KL Rahul said into the stump mic. He doesn’t need a reason to suspect unseen forces are at play.

Life makes it far too easy to think everything is against you. Rahul was getting daily reminders of it on his social media accounts. And although he knew the best thing to do was to ignore them, it was clear he couldn’t. He cooked up a century celebration that basically gave them strength because, as much as he wanted to show that he was shutting out the noise by putting his hands to his ears, it was also proof that he’d heard it; that he’d obsessed over it.

Cricket is really important to Rahul. He recently opened up about how turning 30 tipped him headlong into an existential crisis because it meant he was closer to the end of his time in the game; he was going to lose the purpose he had set for himself. Maybe it hit him so hard because he knows he has unfinished business.

It brings back memories of the late 2010s, when just as it seemed he was about to go up a level, reeling off fifty-plus scores like they were two-times tables, he broke down, losing his sense of where his off stump was and getting done on both the inside and the outside edges. Between January 2018 and August 2019, he managed only two fifty-plus scores. In 19 of those 27 innings he did not cross 30.

When India’s batting coach at the time, Sanjay Bangar, was asked to diagnose Rahul’s issues, he said he might be overthinking; trying too hard to stop himself getting dismissed instead of focusing on just playing the ball. It made sense.

In England, he was terrorised by the outswinger, to the point that he once changed his technique mid-match, adding a shuffle into his set-up at the crease. In Australia, he kept chasing wide deliveries. So when he came back home, he figured if he delayed his shots, if he didn’t commit so early, he might do better. Except now the bowlers were targeting his stumps and he was bringing his bat down too late to stop them.

Bangar refused to entertain any notion that Rahul’s technique had deteriorated. He had come into the Indian team on the back of some heavy run-scoring in domestic cricket – in big matches as well. He was a Ranji Trophy winner for Karnataka and his backfoot game against both pace and spin is among the very best in the world. He just needed to get out of his own head, get through those early stages of his innings so that he could start feeling more comfortable at the crease because it is only at that point, when he’s nice and relaxed, that his training could finally take over. Like it did one cloudy Boxing Day in Centurion in December 2023.

By now, Rahul had already felt the sting of the axe, the high of captaining his country, several, often untimely, injuries – he was being put through the wringer and the only way he was going to cope was if he let go just a little; if he lived just a little.

Facing a high-quality South African attack, in conditions that made fast bowlers leap out of bed and everybody else hide behind their couches, Rahul found pleasure doing his job, even when it went badly. There were times when he got beaten on the outside edge and he just smiled. He made 101 runs that day. More than that, he made peace with those unseen forces that will always be at play. He can’t account for them every single time. He can’t be on guard against them every single moment.

India are trying to put Rahul in this frame of mind. “I think with KL, the kind of quality he has, everyone knows about it,” Rohit Sharma said on Tuesday ahead of the first Test against Bangladesh in Chennai. “And I can only talk about since I started captaining, the kind of messaging that has been given to him from our side was very simple that we wanted him to play all games. And we want him to bring the best out of him. And it is our duty as well to bring the best out of him. It’s important that we give him that clear message that this is what we expect from you. And I think we’ve done that.”

“The guy’s got the talent. He’s got the game to play spin and seam. So, I don’t see any reason why he can’t flourish in Test cricket.”

Rohit Sharma on KL Rahul

It is true that unfulfilled potential has rarely come with more potential to leave unfulfilled and that, Rahul’s career, seen across its 10 years, presents an ultimate picture of a man who has been peak at being mid. Also, if India keep going back to him, they run the risk of alienating the next set of batters coming through domestic cricket.

But here’s the thing. India don’t really go back these days. They moved on from Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane once they found Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal. They moved on from Ishant Sharma once they found Mohammed Siraj. Yet they haven’t been able to move on from Rahul. With this series, they’ve come knocking on his door for the fifth time in three years. They have to be looking past the numbers, or at least at a different set of them – they exist, and they are equally compelling.

Thirty-three of Rahul’s 50 Tests have been away from home, and in those matches he was responsible for one-fourth (six of 24) of the centuries the top four have scored. The only Indian to better that was Virat Kohli. India are making a consideration on the basis of that, dropping him from a particularly perilous position – opening the batting in the World Test Championship era – down into the middle order, where he has a reasonable chance of those early few minutes he spends at the crease being a little less taxing. He’s only been in this role for four matches and has a hundred overseas and an 86 at home. And he’s got a block of 10 matches coming up to improve on those returns.

“The guy’s got the talent,” Rohit said, “He’s got the game to play spin and seam. So, I don’t see any reason why he can’t flourish in Test cricket. Obviously, the opportunities are there now. Obviously, spending so much time in international cricket, it’s for him also to understand now how he wants to take his career forward.”