Shamik Chakrabarty in Dubai
KL Rahul was frank and honest. There was no beating around the bush, no artificial attempt to hide his feelings. He admitted pressure.
The question to him at the press conference on Saturday — for a change, India’s presser started 10 minutes earlier than the schedule — was about whether a player of Rishabh Pant’s talent breathing down his neck has been added pressure? Rahul replied: “It is, I won’t lie.”
Rahul is a more well-rounded batter, technically sound. But what Pant can do with a piece of willow, he can’t. Very few in world cricket can match the southpaw’s impact batting. That he is not getting games attests India’s embarrassment of riches.
“He (Pant) is obviously a very, very talented player,” said Rahul. “He has shown all of us what he can do, how aggressive he can be and how quickly he can change the game. So, yes, there’s always the temptation for the team as well as whoever is the captain or the coach (to play him).”
There’s an upside also, for the healthy competition keeps Rahul on his toes and allows him very little margin for error. The 32-year-old has earned his place as the first-choice wicketkeeper-batter by dint of his performance. In 2023, when Pant was recovering from a horror car accident, Rahul was given the role, and he stood up to be counted. He scored 983 runs at 70.21, including two centuries, from 24 matches that year. India played only three ODIs in 2024, and although Pant returned to the fold, the team management saw no reason to make a change. Head coach Gautam Gambhir was clear in his communication that Rahul would be the team’s first-choice in the Champions Trophy and Pant his back-up.
“Yeah, for me, if I’m given the opportunity, I try and see what I can do best,” said Rahul. “I’m not trying to compete with Rishabh. I’m not trying to play like him. I’m sure I’m not going to try and play like anybody else. He is big on the basis of how he can play and what he can provide for the team. The same applies to me. So I try to do what I do best and try to stick to my game.”
No. 6 is not a natural position for Rahul. He is a top-order batter and needed adjustments to be in sync with death-over batting. Spending hours at the nets has helped. In a way, one can call it the ‘Pant-effect’.
“It’s often a high-risk position, No. 6,” observed Rahul. “I’m batting at No. 6 now. I might be walking in with eight, 10 or 12 overs to go. So, something that I have realised in the last six-seven months is that I needed to have that skill-set to go in and be able to hit sixes probably from ball one or sometimes be able to play with a really high strike-rate. So, that’s why you see me practising all of that as soon as I go in and I challenge myself to see if I can hit a six off the first couple of deliveries or how many boundaries can I hit in the first 10 balls.”
Constant changes in batting order can affect anyone’s game. But that’s the nature of the beast as far as international cricket is concerned. Rahul doesn’t complain.
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