KL Rahul celebrated his century by sucking his fingers ©AFP
With the new arrival in the family, KL Rahul seems to be in a happy space. He marked his rare home century with a playful finger-sucking baby gesture dedicated to his newborn daughter, Evaarah. "That was for my daughter," he said at the end of the day's play in Ahmedabad.
It was not just the happy contented family-man vibes that Rahul exuded at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Friday, the second day of the first Test against West Indies; there was also a visible sense of relief in having finally secured a settled position in the Indian batting order.
Over the past 12 months, and in his 11-year Test career, he had batted at various positions - No. 3, 4, and 6 - before finally settling into the opening slot in the recent England series. Rahul would not confirm if that stability was the reason behind the newfound heft in his batting: 532 runs in five Tests during the Anderson-Tendulkar series, and now a century - exactly 100 - against West Indies on Friday. It is not hard to discern.
It has been a roller-coaster for 12 months. He was dropped after one Test against New Zealand in last year's disastrous home series, with Sarfaraz Khan preferred in the batting order, and then followed an average away series in Australia where his position remained unsettled. Since the Anderson-Tendulkar series this summer, however, he has turned up the intensity, and it has been a seamless run since for the 33-year-old India opener. With Rohit Sharma retired, he has been reinstated at the top of the order.
Another reason for his newfound success has been his preparation. He has opted to play India A games - whether in Australia, England, or at home in India - to ensure he gets sufficient match practice ahead of the Test series. He toured Australia and England with the A sides, and just last week, he played an India A game against Australia A, in which he had scored a brilliant century.
"I was a bit nervous playing there (in Lucknow) because I haven't been on the field for a good 5-6 weeks. So just to get back into that rhythm, just to get back into getting runs and spending time in the field and coming in day after day for 4-5 days is a bit of a challenge physically as well.
"The conditions here have been really really challenging physically. The game that I played last week was even worse. So yeah, physically it's been really challenging. But yeah, it's good to be out in the middle and it was good for me to have that game and get some miles in me," Rahul said.
Rahul's century in the India A game in Lucknow was a superlative knock under testing conditions, coming in the second innings when India were chasing over 400 for an outright win. India A secured victory by five wickets, with Rahul unbeaten on 176. Naturally, he arrived in Ahmedabad in excellent form.
Friday's century was a classical opener's knock, featuring largely risk-free shots at a strike rate of 50. One of his 12 fours - a reverse sweep off Khary Pierre - was an aberration, very uncharacteristic for Rahul, played with less control than usual. Yet it was better than skipper Shubman Gill, who fell to a similar reverse sweep against a different bowler (Roston Chase).
Rahul has only two hundreds at home as against nine overseas, the century at home coming in nine years - after a gap of 3211 days to be precise. Batters of his class milk the home conditions but Rahul has, somehow, missed the mark. He has played 21 Tests (33 innings) scoring 1249 runs at an average of 41.63, including 10 fifties and two hundreds.
It is well known that Rahul has been teaming with Abhishek Nayar and the two have worked hard for his recent successes. But he also had some technical issues which Rahul Dravid and Vikram Rathour combine ironed out, when they were with the Indian team.
It was said that his bottom hand grip was rotating outwards, not aligning with the V created between the thumb and the first finger. When the V's do not align, batters cannot close the face of the bat as the wrist is already turned over creating an open bat face and an element of slicing at the ball, not ideal in terms of batting control.
Dravid's contention was that a batter of Rahul's abilities and temperament should be averaging 50 in Test match cricket - he averages 35 currently. But over the last one year, he has almost breached that number across formats, not just in Test cricket. In the last 12 months, his Test average has shot up to 49.92, 48 in the ODIs and 53 in the IPL.
"I have really enjoyed my batting, playing in different conditions. England was fun. Obviously getting runs there gives you a lot of confidence and coming into this game with some runs behind me also helped. (I'm) feeling fresher after a longish break after the (England) series. I really enjoyed being back," Rahul said, looking fresh, hungry and happy. Maybe it's KL Rahul 2.0.
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