A CHALLENGING JOURNEY KL Rahul: The multifaceted demands of modern batsmanship Rishi Roy Share Tweet

"It has been a tough journey for me those 2-3 years, to completely change the way people look at me and to even bring belief in my own teammates that I can perform in all formats" - KL Rahul ©Getty

There's no denying the life-changing anecdotes and fairytales brought about by the Indian Premier League auction. A man working on a daily wage of less than a dollar a day, residing in one of the more volatile and politically unstable states of the country, couldn't have imagined in his most absurd dreams that he would be signed for INR 2 million to play in the most popular and lucrative T20 league in the world. There is certainly abundant pressure, perhaps even shock that tags along with the riches of the IPL; but in modern cricket, the team of support staff outnumbers the players in the squad. There are mental health specialists, Yoga trainers, even sports psychologists specialising in cricket, to care for the rookies and pros alike.

The IPL has brought money into the sport like never before, which is certainly a great incentive for the players. After all, a 7-figure paycheck may be insignificant for the modern Indian cricketer, but for a daily-wage labourer from the war-stricken state of Kashmir, it is, in his own words, "the beginning of a better life."

But...

There's always a but...

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Rewind to the 2014 IPL auction: a 22-year-old rookie batsman was picked up by the Sunrisers Hyderabad for INR 1 crore. His father, a professor at the prestigious NIT Karnataka, threw a party for his students in celebration. Goddess Lakshmi had smiled upon them. To the proud parents, their child was the chosen one.

After a mildly successful season with the Sunrisers, Rahul was picked to play for the RCB, and went on to perform extremely well in the 2016 season, proving his worth in the shortest format and attempting to shake off the Test-player tag. However, despite impressive performances, being in the shadows of T20 giants such as Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, and Chris Gayle, did not help his cause as he struggled to shake off the label.

"It has been a tough journey for me those 2-3 years, to completely change the way people look at me and to even bring belief in my own teammates that I can perform in all three formats," says Rahul in a chat with Cricbuzz. "I had to kill so many demons in my own head and prove so many people wrong and I realised that even if you're branded, don't take it seriously; take the criticism, use that anger and channelize it into working twice as hard on yourself."

After a four-year grind in the league, and amidst all the franchise-hopping, he fetched a whopping 11 crores in the 2018 auction - one of the fattest paychecks of the auction - as he was signed by the Kings XI Punjab. Rahul's T20 fairytale had begun. He made sure he wasted no time and proved his worth in his very first match, pummelling the fastest fifty in IPL's history. He went on to become Punjab's most valuable and explosive batsman (ahead of even the mighty Chris Gayle) for the remainder of the season, and made sure he lived up to his paycheck.

For the modern youth, KL Rahul is living the dream.

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Now, for the flip-side of the fame; Rahul is also one of India's first-choice Test openers, and the youngest of the trio. With Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan into their 30s, Rahul is the frontrunner for the opening slot going into the next decade of Indian cricket. So while it is quite a thrill to watch the jaws drop as he executes his reverse-laps for a six, his slices, his slashes, and all his cheeky circus tricks, it is KL Rahul: Test opener edition that could be the opportunity cost of it all.

Sound familiar? A medieval grandpa going on a rant on the superiority of Test cricket and ridiculing the IPL for all that is wrong with the world? Hear me out. Let us delve a little deeper.

Rahul has a fantastic base technique, which isn't surprising given that he has spent ages as the great Rahul Dravid's apprentice. His stance is compact, he plays late, he plays straight, has excellent off-stump awareness, and as a result, he leaves well too.

Moreover, after a nightmare of a debut Test at the MCG, Rahul opened the batting in Sydney and immediately struck a patient hundred. More importantly, though, he was able to make the necessary adjustments in Australia, such as standing tall in your stance and playing out the new Kookaburra.

"The first 15 overs is the hardest period with Kookaburra balls since there's a lot of seam movement; but if you get through that time, from 20 to say 40-50 overs, it's the best time to bat," says Rahul, about opening the batting in his redemption innings at the SCG. "There's no other ball better to bat against, whatever the conditions. Later on, there's a little bit of reverse-swing again."

The pitch might've been batting-friendly, but the ball certainly wasn't. The new Kookaburra was gripping off the seam, swinging in the air, and bouncing steeply - in short, a typical Australian wicket. The unwavering accuracy of Hazlewood, the nagging length of Harris, and the intimidating pace of Starc didn't help at all. In addition, there was the added hurdle of facing the hard seam of the Kookaburra unpredictably darting off the line.

However, Rahul, the Test batsman, stood there in the sapping heat of Sydney, absorbed the pressure, exhibited excellent off-stump awareness, compact technique, supreme shot selection, and more importantly, immense mental strength, to redeem himself after a forgettable debut. Against a quality attack, in perhaps the most difficult (albeit familiar) position to bat, he put his ego aside, played inside the line of a few and essentially just let them beat his bat, showing maturity beyond his years to patiently wait for the red Kookaburra to get old and lose its sting. It was a redemption for the ages, and India had unearthed a new Test opener.

Nevertheless, since Sydney, there was very little Test cricket as the 2015 World Cup got underway, and eventually, Rahul started to reinvent his game for the requirements of T20 cricket. He scored a fabulous T20I hundred during a pressure run-chase in Florida (2016), in a game that India heartbreakingly lost by one run. Having become only the third Indian to score a hundred in each format, he was being hailed as one of India's most versatile batsmen; one who could adjust to the requirements of the format he was playing. Rahul had become a landmark for adaptability.

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Do we ask too much of him though? "A man's inner personality reflects in his batting," Kevin Pietersen implies in his book Kevin Pietersen on Cricket. The challenge lies in the fact that Rahul is expected to transform into an alter-ego of sorts when he's opening in the Indian off- whites. He's expected to be gritty, leaving well outside off, staying compact and always play as late as possible to give himself enough time to compensate for any lateral movement. And then he has to change right back to the shimmering Punjab uniform, flaying at balls outside off, jumping around the crease, scooping, ramping, lofting and Chinese cutting with all his might.

TLDR? He is expected to be Alastair Cook and Brendon McCullum at the same time.

There are a number of problems with this. Batting psychology is very fickle. Two of the most important virtues of opening the batting in Tests are "never trust the new ball" and "be aware of your off-stump". With his trigger movement towards middle-stump such that his eye is on off, and his low-backlift defence, Rahul maintains both of these virtues. Nevertheless, the end moment, the final flourish, when the ball arrives and the batsman reacts to it, is pure instinct.

Here lies the problem. At a micro-level, Rahul has started to go after balls outside off-stump and hitting through the line. Trusting the pitch is a dangerous habit, particularly for an opening batsman. One might look at this as a more attacking approach, but on more sensitive and seaming tracks, this newly developed T20 instinct of trusting the new ball and hitting through the line spells danger for a batsman in his formative years who is approaching the peak of his abilities.

Rahul knows where his off-stump is, sure, but at the final instance, when the ball reaches the batsman, he reacts purely on instinct. It is not a decision; an "instinctive decision" is an oxymoron. It is just the way his body has been trained to respond after hours of toil in the nets. In the formative years of Rahul, the Test opener, this instinct needs to be sharpened rather than be tampered with. For instance, his final game in the IPL, where he left an incoming delivery alone and decided to shoulder arms far too early, was a worrying sign.

IPL Match 56, KXIP vs. CSK: Lungi Ngidi to Rahul, out Bowled!! Wow! This is excellent bowling from Lungi Ngidi. After all those away-going deliveries, he gets one to shape in. Rahul shoulders arms and loses his off-stump. Top-class bowling. A goodish length from over the wicket and Rahul anticipating the ball swing away raised his bat. It was however,, the inswinger. Hits the top of off. KXIP's best batsman this season departs for a cheap score. ***

Furthermore, his dismissal in the first innings of the Edgbaston Test highlights the fact that his approach of running his bottom-handed grip through the line of wide deliveries in his pursuit of scoring runs tampers with his Test match instinct - leaving them alone, approaching them with a top-handed V-grip, and more importantly, playing late. Instead, as the dismissal demonstrates, the bottom-handed grip worthy of true pitches, took over, hindering him from making a late adjustment, in the second ball of his maiden Test innings in England. In short, his T20 technique is evidently seeping into his Test game.

First Test, Edgbaston, 1st innings: Sam Curran to Rahul, out Bowled!! Two in the over. And Sam Curran leaps in delight, punching the air once more. Poor from KL, reached out to a full delivery and tried to drive, thick inside edge and it clattered back on. There was nothing special in that ball, just a bad shot. And all of a sudden England are pumped. Enter Kohli... ***

He still doesn't have much exposure of playing in foreign conditions - the Test series in South Africa in early 2018 was his first Test tour to a SENA country since the 2014-15 tour of Australia. That, along with his renewed instincts against the new ball, resulted in a relatively quiet series with the bat. This is true, not only in terms of numbers; he was uncomfortable against the new ball and the Kookaburra's early seam movement, that Rahul himself spoke about, as he started to get dismissed by balls that could have been left alone. One might argue that the tour of South Africa wasn't a particularly high-scoring one, but openers need to be judged on a more qualitative basis than a quantitative one. How well can he play out the new ball? How late is he playing? Is he leaving well outside off? Is he looking comfortable enough to play out the new ball to shield the middle-order? The recently-concluded third Test between England and India at Trent Bridge is a prime example of the importance of judging Test openers qualitatively, as the Indian openers, Dhawan and Rahul, saw through a torrid first session with the ball seaming around and set the tone for a famous win.

Of course, one might argue that there are but a handful of seaming tracks in the modern era. A failure in tough batting conditions could simply be viewed at as an aberration. However, if viewers of the game are content with flat-track and drop-in pitches, cricket will lose its identity; the one thing that sets it apart from other sports: non-standardised conditions - varying pitch conditions, boundaries, and even different brands of ball. Having said that, if cricketers are content with performing on 10 flat tracks in exchange for a failure on a rank-turner or a green-top, then Test cricket is doomed.

Rahul, the Test opener, all of three years into the longest format, started the Test series against England having never faced the 'Dukes: Special County' ball in English conditions before. The Dukes ball, in all its raised-seam and hand-polished glory, is a different challenge altogether compared to the Kookaburra and SG balls - in terms of how long the shine stays, when the best time is to play your shots against it, when it starts to reverse-swing, at what pace it reverse-swings, and several others. As opposed to most sports, the varying brands of cricket ball bring forth their distinctive characteristics of each in different countries - one of the unique features of our beloved sport. Nevertheless, it also means that even the best of batsmen can be found wanting at almost any juncture of their careers, and may need to tweak their techniques accordingly.

In the Trent Bridge Test, Rahul made a change in his technique to tackle the new-ball challenge, resulting in his dismissal ©Getty

"Yes, I have played the Dukes, but the wickets that we got in the West Indies are totally different from what we're going to get in England." said Rahul, indicating the harder and grassier (to hold the pitch together) nature of English wickets, as opposed to the slower Caribbean wickets, allowing the ball to skid and seam much faster, as we witnessed in the recently-concluded Test series between Pakistan and England. "I don't really know what Dukes is going to do in England, and what kind of adjustments I will have to make."

In addition, the volume of competitive cricket being played has resulted in player fatigue over the last few years, ever since the advent of the IPL. And to cap it off, the window that was previously used for a county stint by overseas players to get accustomed to English conditions is the price that we have paid for the glitzy T20 leagues bringing in the moolah.

The tampering of a young opener's instinct and his technique in his nascent years as a Test batsman can cost India, once again opening up the middle order to face the wrath of the English bowlers - particularly the seam-bowling exponents like Stuart Broad and Ben Stokes. In fact, in the third Test of India's 2018 tour of England, Rahul made a change in his technique to shuffle across whilst still side-on and to use a bottom-handed grip to tackle the new-ball challenge, resulting in his second innings dismissal as the ball sneaked through the gate - an inherent problem if the backfoot doesn't come across towards off-stump in the trigger and the bottom-handed grip gets the bat down from the slip cordon. One starts to lose balance, and fall over into the off-side - clearly exhibited by his dismissal to Ben Stokes in the second innings.

Third Test, Trent Bridge, 2nd innings: Stokes to Rahul, out Bowled! I'd say I told you so, but never mind. His head falls across again as he leaves a gap between bat and pad whilst trying a booming off-drive, and the in-seamer sneaks through to leave his stumps in a mess. In fact, deflects off the pad and then goes onto the stumps. A rather rapid 36 by Rahul, and a useful knock in context to extend the lead quickly and heap the pressure on the hosts. He departs for a vital and potentially understated innings. ***

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The solution? Perhaps a more divided approach like England: a side comprising of players specializing in the longer format and a bespoke limited-overs team has worked wonders for them in the recent past, and they have gone on to become the most successful ODI side since the 2015 World Cup*. Let the players focus on their game. Their forte.

From an Indian viewpoint, Murali Vijay is a Test specialist now, after serving as CSK's mainstay at the top of the order for several years. Cheteshwar Pujara has shifted his focus to county cricket to gain some exposure to the Dukes ball. Ishant Sharma, too, has dedicated himself to the white shroud of Test cricket and has recognized that his primary skill lies in the game's longest format. Ravichandran Ashwin has confounded England in this dry English summer. There we go then - India do have their own batch of custom-built Test cricketers, and to the purist, Rahul is too good a Test talent to forego.

Then again, perhaps Rahul can prove that he is Mr. Adaptability, and perform equally well in all formats. After all, that's what sport is all about: defying projections and numbers, and proving oneself against all odds. After all, a few years ago a certain Little Master's century tally seemed unfathomable, but India seem to have produced a new batting colossus who has made the number four spot his own.

We've seen the pledge, and we've seen the turn. Perhaps now that the plausibility of Rahul's adaptability across formats has been called into question, the prospect of him defying all odds seems even more exhilarating; because once you've seen the magic trick...

"...you're looking for the secret. But you won't find it because of course, you're not really looking. You don't really want to work it out.

"You want to be fooled." - The Prestige...

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