KL Rahul never had the endorsement of Indian cricket’s all-knowing spectre, a vast section of e-fans who revel in venom-spewing from cosy armchairs. Social media gives them a platform. Match-going cricket lovers, not star worshippers, know his value and in the latter half of India’s innings in the second ODI against New Zealand here in Rajkot, they started to serenade the wicketkeeper-batter with “Rahul, Rahul” chants.
The century was still 20 runs away. It came in due course, Rahul’s eighth in ODIs. On a slow pitch, his 112 off 92 balls took India to a fighting total.
In the litany of wrong decisions made by the current team management, mostly in Tests and a few in white-ball cricket, Gautam Gambhir & Co. should be praised for making the correct call with regards to Rahul. Making him the first-choice ’keeper-batter in 50-over cricket at the expense of Rishabh Pant wasn’t an easy decision. So we must give credit where credit’s due.
For a significant part of Rahul’s career, he has searched for stability. Not many moons ago he used to be a floater in the batting order, a horses-for-courses pick. This team management has given him a stable batting position in Tests and ODIs. No wonder that Rahul has become wonderfully consistent. Sample this — between the Champions Trophy last year and the second 50-over international against the Kiwis on Wednesday, he has played 16 ODIs, scoring 508 runs at 72.57. It’s significantly above his career average of 51.67.
Today’s innings was a masterclass in picking up the pace, on a surface where stroke-play wasn’t easy. He was the reason why the hosts could eventually post 284/7, recovering from a mini slump when they lost three top-order wickets inside seven overs for 19 runs. It was still below-par.
Rahul was ready to play the waiting game. Before him, Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer got out trying to break the shackles. Virat Kohli was castled by the impressive Kristian Clarke. None of them bar Gill, who hit his second half-century on the spin, looked fluent on a sluggish deck. There was a period between over number 17 and 34 when only two boundaries were scored. Rahul had to opt for a slow burn, for and he and Jadeja had a rebuilding job to do. But it was heartening the way he paced his innings to reach a run-a-ball half-century. He ended up with a strike-rate of 121.73.
This game, or the series for that matter, is too inconsequential for this innings to bury the ghost of the 2023 World Cup final. Rahul got stuck in that game, scored 66 off 107 balls and became the villain-in-chief. His redemption arc has been continuing from the Champions Trophy.
In the grand scheme of things, though, it was Daryl Mitchell’s bright night. Resplendent in his mastery in tricky conditions, the 34-year-old scored a wonderful 131 not out off 117 balls to square the three-match series 1-1. On 80, Prasidh Krishna dropped a relatively simple chance off Kuldeep Yadav to give him a life. That aside, it was an innings of the highest class, especially the way he manoeuvred spin and picked the gaps against the seamers.
Also, there was a difference. The Indian innings had just two decent partnerships — a 70-run opening stand between Rohit and Gill, and a 73-run association between Rahul and Jadeja for the fifth wicket. New Zealand’s seven-wicket win with 15 balls to spare was set up by a 162-run third-wicket stand between Mitchell and Will Young. The latter missed his hundred by 13 runs, but he made a match-winning contribution.
India probably erred in their team selection. Nitish Kumar Reddy was their sixth bowling option, but his dibbly-dobbly medium pace was never going to be effective on this pitch. Ayush Badoni, a like-for-like replacement for the injured off-spin-bowling all-rounder Washington Sundar, wasn’t picked. When a player is in the Indian team, he is supposed to be good enough. As regards Reddy, he bowled just two overs.
Jayden Lennox, New Zealand’s debutant spinner, returned with 1/42 from 10 overs. He even bowled the 48th over during India’s innings. The hosts were a spinner short.
Brief scores: India 284/7 in 50 overs (KL Rahul 112 not out, Shubman Gill 56; Kristian Clarke 3/56) lost to New Zealand 286/3 in 47.3 overs (Daryl Mitchell 131 not out, Will Young 87; Prasidh Krishna 1/49) by 7 wickets.
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