Rahul had been there and done that, of course. He had toured England for the first time with the Test team in 2018, where he scored a century in the final game at the Oval
KL Rahul celebrates his century against West Indies in Ahmedabad last week. Pic/PTI
Within a week of assembling in England in June for a five-Test series, the realisation dawned on KL Rahul that he was the senior-most specialist batter in the Indian side. Part of that realisation was organic, part stemmed from the fact that several of the younger batters on their first tour to England made a beeline to pick the 33-year-old’s brain and gain insights into the challenges of tackling the Dukes ball in unfamiliar conditions.
Rahul had been there and done that, of course. He had toured England for the first time with the Test team in 2018, where he scored a century in the final game at the Oval. Three years on, he got on to the Honour’s Board at Lord’s with another wonderful hundred.
Runs across the globe
He had scored runs all over the world without setting it afire since his debut at the MCG in December 2014. And, with Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli having called time on their respective careers, he was the most experienced batter in Shubman Gill’s unit, even though all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja had made his Test debut two years before him.
Not only did Rahul have to carry the young guns — Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sai Sudharsan, Dhruv Jurel — along with him, he also had to discharge his primary responsibility, which was to score meaningful runs and provide good opening starts alongside Jaiswal. Energised by his new-found status and taking the senior statesman role to heart, the classy right-hander had his most productive series, finishing with 532 runs. For the first time in over a decade, he made two hundreds in the same series, batting with care and caution without going into his shell while ensuring that the younger group around him wasn’t overawed by the English challenge.
No longer in the mix so far as T20Is are concerned, Rahul used the two months between the end of the England series and the start of four home Tests in eight weeks judiciously. After a period of recuperation, he hit the nets and warmed up for the first Test against Roston Chase’s West Indies with an unbeaten, match-winning 176 for India ‘A’ against Australia ‘A’ in Lucknow. Rahul had unfinished business to attend to, the big hundred against the Aussies setting him up nicely for what was to follow.
Breaking the home jinx
Only one of Rahul’s first 10 Test tons had come at home, against England in Chennai in December 2016 when he was cruelly dismissed for 199. It was an irritating anomaly that had to be corrected, so the Bengalurean set about doing precisely that here.
After the Caribbeans were shot out for 162 on Day One, Rahul bedded down with customary efficiency, seeing off the new ball and gradually coming into his own. By his own admission, one of the factors holding him back in India was how to manage an innings without too many boundaries. He did so effortlessly in Ahmedabad, refusing to fall into the trap of trying to manufacture fours and content to rely on the bread and butter of batting, the ones and the twos.
The result — a wonderfully crafted second hundred at home. And just the beginning, one suspects, of more to come.
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