By: Sandipan Bose
For quite sometime, India’s Test opener KL Rahul has been in and out of the team due to injuries. But to our delight, he never lost the focus to stay ahead in the competition. Be it while playing a domestic game or preparing in the nets, he was always right on the money.
The fact that Rahul is one of the most focussed cricketer India have today in their line-up was again at display in Chennai when the Karnataka batsman cracked his fourth Test century of his career.
It was an amalgamation of good technique and perseverance. India, of course, have emerged as a top team in the England series. But Rahul had to prove his worth otherwise as an individual after getting tremendous backing from the team management. So, there was pressure on him to deliver, especially, after captain Virat Kohli vociferously backed him to be a part of the India team in all the formats.
There was also the pressure from the opposition after England made a substantial score of 477 in the first innings. However, Rahul wasn’t bothered about the external pressure. He just wanted to enjoy his cricket and he did on Day 3 of the fifth Test against England.
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Besides good technique and perseverance, Rahul displayed perfect batsmanship in terms of shot selection. In other words, he could do no wrong while facing the England bowlers at Chepauk. There was no support from Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara, as these top order batsmen got out cheaply, but Rahul was at it.
Along with his make-shift opener and brilliant Parthiv Patel, Rahul added 152 runs and gave a solid foundation to the Indian innings. So much so that even the fall of the top-order didn’t rattle Rahul. He was loving the challenges and didn’t want to throw his wicket after all the initial hard work. Rahul played as if he was never out of the team due to any injury.
