KL Rahul’s inclusion in India’s squad for the Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) was questioned before he first took strike in Australia, but ever since he is the only Indian batter who has had the measure of the Australian bowlers. It may not show in the amount of runs Rahul has scored but certainly reflects in how he assimilated what the Aussie pacers were up to and made adjustments in his technique accordingly.
At the Gabbawhere most of the top-order Indian batters were indulging in unnecessary pokes outside the off-stump to either miss or nick the ball, Rahul showed no such interest.
Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Rohit Sharma were all dismissed caught behind — either in the slips or by the wicketkeeper. But one comparison graphic, which popped up during live broadcast on Day 4, showed what Rahul was doing differently than two of India’s premier batters — Rohit and Kohli — against the Australian pacers’ ploy of bowling up to find edges.
GRAPHIC 1: It shows that both Kohli and Rohit are trying to play the ball in front of their pads, which means they are going at the ball, while Rahul is clearly more compact — playing it closer to his body and under the eye.
GRAPHIC 2: It shows that Rahul is intercepting the ball or playing it late, which means he is letting the ball come to him while Rohit and Kohli’s point of contact with the ball is much ahead, and thus earlier. In fact, it shows that Kohli is lunging the farthest to meet the ball and thus getting caught behind repeatedly.
Addressing Kohli’s issue of getting dismissed caught-behind, former India captain Sunil Gavaskar had said on Monday that he should take a leaf out of Sachin Tendulkar’s book, learning from the legend’s knock in the 2004 Sydney Test.
Going into that Sydney Test, Tendulkar too was struggling with balls delivered outside his off-stump and smartly switched himself off from playing cover drives, scoring most of his runs on the leg-side. He went on to make 241 runs in that innings.
“He (Kohli) only needs to look at his hero, Sachin Tendulkar. The way in which he (Tendulkar) had kept his patience and control on his off-side game, scoring those 241 runs at Sydney. He did not play any shot on the off-side, or at least in the cover (region) because before that he was getting dismissed while attempting to play in the covers,” Gavaskar said talking on Star Sports.
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Kohli, however, did play an exceptional knock in the opening Test at Perth, scoring 100 not out in India’s second innings. His other four knocks in this BGT so far read 5, 7, 11, and 3.
Rohit has been struggling ever since the Test series at home against New Zealand and Bangladesh before his arrival in Australia, which was after the first Test. Against Bangladesh, Rohit aggregated just 42 runs in four innings and against New Zealand 91 runs in six innings.
Rohit’s two innings in Adelaide and one at the Gabba read 3, 6, and 10 after he selflessly pushed himself down to the middle order as Rahul had rediscovered his form as an opener alongside Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Rahul, on the other hand, has looked very assured in four of his five knocks in this BGT, which include two half-centuries (26, 77, 37, 7, 84).
