“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” It might not be an obvious link, but for a time KL Rahul kept putting me in mind of F. Scott Fitzgerald.
In the mode of Nick Carraway’s signature narration, cricket’s current beat relentlessly against the 22-year-old Rahul.
Debuting in Melbourne in place of the always criticised Rohit Sharma was a bad omen to begin with. He came in at 4/409, with India seeking ascendancy after a massive partnership, but trying to match Australia’s even bigger total.
They needed relentlessness, but on his seventh ball he charged Nathan Lyon and skied a slog to midwicket. The catch was dropped. Next ball he skied another slog. This catch wasn’t. India collapsed to a first-innings deficit.
In the second innings he came in first drop, batting for a draw after a wicket had fallen in the second over. After five balls he saw a Mitchell Johnson delivery speeding by his off stump and inexplicably hooked, skying it to slip.
It wasn’t just about making two low scores. It was that everything about both of them was ugly. His whole game was a shambles. The kid looked miserable.
“Quite honestly I don’t know myself what was going in my mind,” said Rahul of that debut, speaking with hindsight after the third day of his second Test in Sydney. “It was all going too fast. There is one of the key things that players told me – give myself time between the balls and not to forget to breathe.”
He had arrived in Sydney seeking a fresh start, then dropped a catch from Chris Rogers eight overs into the match. With the ball coming straight he thrust his hands at it in a way under-12 players are taught not to do. It looked ugly. The double-century opening partnership that followed was uglier. By the time Australia declared they had 572. He’d been promoted to open the batting. He couldn’t have felt less like he belonged.
“After [the Australian declaration on Day 2] it was challenging to get through the last 25 overs. Once I did that I felt like it was just a matter of focusing and keep my calm and playing as long as I can.”
He survived to see the morning of the third day, and then the current inexplicably changed direction. Virat Kohli edged a ball that deflected off wicketkeeper Brad Haddin behind square leg. Rahul set off blindly for a run. Over halfway down the pitch he realised his mistake, tripped over himself, crashed to the ground and lost his bat.
It would have been one of the most ignominious run-outs, but substitute Pat Cummins hadn’t noticed and only lobbed the ball to the keeper. Rahul, on 42, was able to dive for his line with outstretched hands, and when a throw finally came in it missed the bowler completely. It was ugly. It was a shambles on all accounts, but at last Rahul wasn’t the one punished.
Not that he would have made them pay when, on 46, he top-edged a pull from Shane Watson. Steve Smith ran back at slip, shielded his eyes from the sun, then was distracted as the ball either hit or nearly hit the SpiderCam wire strung above him.
One of Australia’s better catchers raged at the turfed ball and the floating eye, as the Nine Network immediately starting denying their camera had been anywhere near the scene of the crime. It was a shambles, but this time it was someone else’s shambles.
From there, Rahul found his range. He’d already shown great concentration through most of his innings, scoring only 19 in the day’s first session while absorbing some consistently tight Australian bowling. After the break he began opening up, pulling the fast bowling with more authority, cover-driving with a textbook action, late-cutting the medium pace and pulling the ranker spin deliveries.
His eventual century, unlikely as it had seemed even when the day began, received a thorough round of largely Australian applause.
“I am more relieved than being proud of myself,” he said candidly. “It was a nightmare debut and it didn’t make my life easier coming to the second Test, I dropped a sitter. I kept telling myself the only way from here is up.”
Of course there will be connections drawn with other cricketing Rahuls from Karnataka, and one such did have an influence on the current version. “As a young kid in Bangalore, Rahul Dravid used to come and train with us whenever he was not playing international cricket that gave us and all the youngsters an opportunity to go and talk to him.”
Without imposing expectations, there was a pleasing superficial resemblance: a slender right-hander calmly defending maidens, then standing upright to drive late through cover.
Debut centuries are wonderful, the freshness of a new face and a new (if reminiscent) name. It’s less than two years since Shikhar Dhawan was that new face and name as India’s opener, creaming his majestic 187 on debut against Australia in Mohali.
Rahul has posed the question of whether Dhawan will need to reinvent himself. Can he challenge for the opening spot? Will Rahul be retained? Dhawan actually played well when he returned from injury down the order in Brisbane – perhaps he could turn into India’s number six?
Murali Vijay has been a rock opening the batting. Form quibbles aside, Cheteshwar Pujuara must be their long-term number three. Kohli is approaching greatness at four, and Rahane at five has gathered excellent returns almost exclusively on the foreign pitches where some Indian batsmen fear to take guard.
Six and one are India’s only positions left undecided, and Rahul may have answered the latter for now. Still, he’s flexible. “I have batted in the middle order too for my state so it wasn’t something very new to me. I had to give myself more time. I don’t think it makes much of a difference batting top of the order or lower order, the game still remains the same. You still have to go out there and get runs.”
Thankfully for Rahul, on the other side of all the shambles, he’s shown himself that he can do exactly that.
This article was first published on Wisden India.
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