Anyone who watched KL Rahul play in South Africa just a year ago will know he has the ability. It was one of the best Test match innings played in recent times. And yet, even the most ardent Rahul fan will agree that he hasn’t done justice to his talent. A few excellent innings to go with a number of ordinary ones, and we are all still searching for the real Rahul. Yesterday, at the MCG, he did not really get in. Four balls aren’t an index to judge anyone. Can he be the answer to India’s opening conundrum at the Optus Stadium in Perth on November 22 if Rohit Sharma isn’t available? With his pedigree, he certainly can. Having said that, he looks mentally fragile and low on confidence, and that’s always been the issue with Rahul – his mind space.
At one point, he was regarded as the next big thing in India’s batting line-up. Excellent defensive technique, and all the shots in the book. Many of us felt he would be a Test match great. He hasn’t been. And the only reason I can really pinpoint here is the muddle in the mind. In trying to seek perfection of a very different standard, Rahul loses control. Just like a historian can never write the perfect history, there is nothing like perfect technique. Yes, there are training manuals, but then you innovate. Tendulkar did not have the perfect grip. He scored 50 Test hundreds. Steve Waugh did not have the best technique against the short ball – he scored thousands of runs for Australia.
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Rahul needs to believe he can do the job. And obsess less about technical perfection. More importantly, just ignore the outside noise. When the controversy over the Koffee with Karan episode was raging, he was mentally at his worst. I remember him telling me that he was finding it difficult to face the world. Finding it tough to come to terms with what the world would say or think. The thing is that it was not even relevant. He needed to ask himself what he stood for. And find peace. That’s what he needs to do now. Who is the real Rahul? The one who scored a magical 100 against South Africa in South Africa, or someone who has had multiple stop-starts to his career?
Just the other day, I was watching highlights of India’s decisive win in the third Test of the 2018 series. Rahul played a very important hand of 44 in the second innings. He found ways to score and it got India off the blocks. Technically, the innings wasn’t perfect. Mentally, it was. KL was ready and determined. And it worked. That’s what he needs to do in the next fortnight ahead of the Perth Test.
Abhimanyu Easwaran hasn’t really looked the part, and India don’t have too many other options. Rahul has done the job in the past and should surely look at it as an opportunity. Ravi Shastri played Mayank Agarwal and Hanuma Vihari as openers at the MCG in 2018, and the rest is history. While the team management should give him an opportunity at No. 6 if he fails as an opener – something Sourav Ganguly had promised Virender Sehwag when asking him to open in England in 2002 – Rahul is perhaps India’s best option in the circumstances if he can sort his mind out. The question is, can he?
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